(Photo by EU Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid via Flickr/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 DEED)
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The large discrepancy in media and political attention between global conflicts is an increasingly important problem, especially since 2023, which marked the highest number of armed conflicts since World War 2. West and Central Africa are home to the vast majority of these neglected conflicts, with Burkina Faso being a prime example of a forgotten conflict zone.
According to a June 2024 report by the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), Burkina Faso “tops the neglected crises list for the second year running.” The number of displaced persons in Burkina Faso grew by 707,000 in 2023, and more than 8,400 people died by violent means. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of people were unable to access aid, and 42,000 people were reported to be suffering from “catastrophic levels of food insecurity.”
Despite the dire circumstances, Burkina Faso only received 37 percent of the requested humanitarian funding, leaving hundreds of thousands of people struggling to survive. Media attention is also lacking. According to a Care International report measuring media attention toward global conflicts, only 11,000 articles published were about the crisis in Burkina Faso in 2023. In comparison, 205,000 articles published were about Prince Harry’s new book ‘Spare.’ When a militant attack killed 200 people on August 24th, it went largely unreported.
How Crisis Became the Norm in Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in the Sahel region of West Africa. A French ex-colony, it shares borders with Niger and Mali. Since 2019, conflict between state and non-state groups have ravaged Burkina Faso, with support from Islamist groups like ISIS and al-Qaeda. However, the Sahel region has been in violent turmoil since the collapse of the Libyan state in 2011.
After the disintegration of the Libyan state, Mali and Niger witnessed several armed soldiers crossing their borders. These fighters reignited a Tuareg rebellion in Northern Mali. The nomadic Tuareg minority, in its struggle for independence, aligned itself with Islamist militant groups. This rebellion led to political insecurity and a string of military coups in Mali, with the violence ultimately spilling over into its neighboring countries – including Burkina Faso.
Although the Tuareg rebellion less impacted Burkina Faso—its own Tuareg population is much smaller than that of Mali and Niger—the Islamist militant groups have wreaked havoc on the country. The two most dominant non-state groups active in the region are Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam (JNIM), an affiliate of al-Qaeda, and Islamic State Sahel Province (IS Sahel). The violence between these groups and the state has led to multiple military coups and the total collapse of education and healthcare structures in the state.
Until 2022, Western powers such as the US and France had a military presence in Burkina Faso. However, President Macron decided to “end its anti-jihadist West Africa mission after several failed missions.” After the French retreat, violent attacks exploded in the country, with 2000 civilians dying in the first six months. Armed groups committed massacred worshippers, displaced peoples, and villagers with attacks on churches and internally displaced persons (IDP) camps despite these being considered blatant war crimes.
Burkina Faso’s Shift Toward Russia
Western powers, most notably France, have had a political and military presence in the Sahel region since the dissolution of their colonies in the sixties. However, the string of military coups in the region led to tense diplomatic relations with France. In Burkina Faso, two military coups took place in 2022, and France was accused of hiding Colonel Damiba after Captain Ibrahim Traoré usurped his position as head of state.
The bitter relationship between Traoré and France pushed Traoré to become friendly with Russia and welcome the presence of the infamous ‘Africa Corps.’ The Africa Corps is a rebranding of the Russian-affiliated mercenary group ‘the Wagner Group,’ which the U.S. has accused of blatant violence and crimes against humanity. These geopolitical tensions and the presence of violent groups in the country have worsened the already difficult living conditions for Burkinabe citizens.
The Forgotten People
The tensions between Russia and the West pushed Western countries to step back from directly intervening in the crisis, leaving it up to the UN and NGOs to try alleviating the hardships facing the Burkinabe population. Transport and distribution of aid are proving to be extremely difficult. 800,000 people live under blockade in Burkina Faso, with little to no access to basic necessities. These people live in an aid “blind spot” because it is almost impossible to enter these enclaves. The only means to do so is through air transport.
Currently, the UN Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) only has one cargo helicopter, rendering aid distribution across the ever-multiplying enclaves burdensome. In addition, the costs of air transport are twelve times those of land transport, meaning that most of the aid is sent to places with easy land access to maximize the utility of the funds available. Because of this, only 1% of Burkinabe civilians living in the enclaves received aid from INGOs in 2023.
Without adequate media attention, organizations are unlikely to acquire the resources necessary to reach the Burkinabe population. Pressure from informed citizens helps determine which causes will receive government aid. Traoré’s government has been increasingly attempting to muzzle international media, both through censorship and the expulsion of international journalists.
Currently, the Burkinabe government has censored 13 international news outlets after they reported on a Human Rights Watch article that condemned the government’s violence toward civilians. In addition, all international news houses have been closed and “no foreign journalists remain in the African nation.”
Why are so many Western and Central African Crises Neglected?
The lack of media houses does not fully explain the lack of attention. 9 of the 10 top neglected refugee crises in the world are located in West or Central Africa. These regions are home to some of the world’s most complex and extensive conflicts; yet, they receive little to no media coverage. A lack of funding and ongoing government censorship makes conditions unsafe for foreign journalists, but this is only part of the story.
Conflicts in West and Central Africa tend to be of strategic interest to Western nations only because of access to resources but not for geopolitical gain. The war in Ukraine, in contrast, is a direct security risk to Europe, making it much more ‘interesting’ to Western countries. The same applies to the genocide in Gaza—the US and Europe’s strong ties to Israel make a conflict in the region directly relevant to them. In West and Central Africa, there are very few consequences for the conflicts to be out of sight, out of mind. For the West, involvement in yet another African conflict is viewed as an investment with no real return.
Another major factor is a sense of fatigue toward the “African problem.” In part due to the lack of access, the reporting coming out of Africa is not diverse and typically portrays nations as being full of overwhelming challenges instead of portraying nations as being home to rich and diverse people and cultures. The reporting leads to a one-dimensional view of Africa, with a lack of interest and empathy as a consequence. Burkina Faso is home to more than sixty ethnic groups speaking more than seventy languages, and Burkinabé culture is rich in musical traditions and oral storytelling. However, the media typically portrays it as a destitute nation with no hope of peace.
The limited media attention on Burkina Faso makes it appear as if the crisis unfolding there is too large and too complex to tackle and gives little incentive to potential donors to prioritize this crisis over others with more ‘feasible’ solutions. But we must not forget how quickly things can change and what potential conflict-ridden nations have to rebuild themselves. Look at Rwanda, wrought with turmoil and genocide in the 90s, and now home to the third fastest-growing economy in the world with the highest rate of primary school enrollment in Africa.
A Crisis in Need of Global Attention
The conflict in Burkina Faso has been allowed to spiral into a displacement crisis affecting hundreds of thousands of people. It is a crisis that has been neglected by the media and by the international community. Viewed as yet another ‘African problem,’ the calls for aid by humanitarian organizations have remained largely unanswered. As eyes in the West are glued to their screens, Burkina Faso’s plight has been left by the wayside. The conflict in the Sahel, like so many protracted conflicts in West and Central Africa, is viewed as just another ‘problem’ – someone’s problem, but not necessarily ours.
This does not have to be the case. Conflicts can be brought to an end, and should be because peaceful and stable nations are in the best interest of the global order; however, it will take the international community to work together to achieve this.
Edited by Melanie Miles
