Nairobi, Kenya
Religious leaders in Burkina Faso have stepped up to assist millions of citizens who crises, including conflict and climate change, have impacted.
The West African nation of more than 20 million people has experienced many challenges over the past decade. Early this year, the military overthrew the government, making it the fourth coup to rock the country in 18 months. The country is still battling a jihadist insurgency in the regions bordering Mali and Niger, and climate change is stripping the livelihoods of farmers and herders.
Bishop Laurent Birfuoré Dabiré of Burkina Faso’s Dori Diocese. PICTURE: Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).
The conflict in the landlocked country has killed thousands of people, displaced more than two million from their homes, and spurred protests countrywide despite foreign troops and United Nations peacekeeping missions being on the ground.
The situation has prompted the religious leaders to intervene. Last month, for example, the Catholic Church initiated a solidarity fund to help people and communities facing crises. Bishop Laurent Birfuoré Dabiré, of the Dori Diocese, said that through the help of Caritas Burkina, they had launched The Alfred Diban Catholic Solidarity Fund (FCSAD) to help thousands of people who are displaced and those who are sleeping hungry.
“We started the fund as a way of the church being independent and always responding to the crises happening all over the country,” said Bishop Dabiré. He is also the president of the Bishops’ Conference of Burkina Faso and Niger.
“The fund shows the compassion, charity, and mercy of the Catholic Church in Burkina Faso to people and communities facing crises, both inside and outside Burkina Faso.”
Bishop Dabiré said donations towards the fund are being collected from the parishes and catholic institutions throughout the country. He encouraged Christians and people of goodwill to continue making their donations towards the funds to immediately assist victims of the conflict.
“The fund will support and care for victims of natural disasters, food and nutritional crises, socio-political crises, and epidemics,” he said, noting that they had mobilised priests and catechists around the country and neighbouring regions to collect donations from parishioners and well-wishers to ensure the fund reached as many people as possible.
“We want the fund to be sustainable so that, as a church, we can assist victims in case there’s a need without entirely depending on the government to do it alone.”
More than two million people have been displaced in Burkina Faso: PICTURE: Tom Peyre-Costa/Norwegian Refugee Council.
Other denominations have also been helping victims of violence. Pastor Daouda Kabore, of the Pentecostal church in Ouagadougou – the capital city of Burkina Faso, said his congregation has been visiting refugee camps and families impacted by the on-going threat of violent extremism and climate change.
“Climate change has affected the people of this country. Families have not harvested due to continuous drought, and hunger is everywhere. The civil war has worsened because people are dying while others are in refugee camps,” said pastor Kabore. “My congregants have been making donations every week to reach out to these families. We provide relief and shelter to the victims who have nowhere to go and lack food and other necessities.”
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Bernadette Sawadogo, 48, is one of the beneficiaries of the fund. In mid-April, the Catholic Church in Dori, a town in north-eastern Burkina Faso, gave her shelter within the church compound with her family and gave them clothes, cleaning kits, blankets, food, water, and hygiene kits.
Sawadogo was living in a displaced person camp in Dori after her village was attacked at midnight last November by armed groups, killing dozens of civilians.
“I want to thank the church for helping me with my family,” said the mother of four. “We didn’t come with anything when we were attacked in the middle of the night. We were trying to save our lives.”
Sawadogo appealed to the people of goodwill to help the vulnerable people in the country, especially those living in the displaced person camps.
“I urge people of goodwill to assist those who are suffering. I want other people to be assisted like the way I was helped,” she said.
