Armed violence. Drought. Floods. In Burkina Faso, these three factors have forced nearly half a million people – three-quarters of whom are women and children – to flee their homes and seek refuge in camps and with host families, primarily in the country’s Sahel and Central North regions. Difficult access due to insecurity – there have been more than 500 incidents of insecurity in 2019 – and recent flooding are hampering efforts to deliver humanitarian aid.

Armed attackers are increasingly targeting health care facilities and workers, with one health worker recently killed and another kidnapped. At least 85 health facilities have been closed and another 93 are only partially functional, leaving more than a million people without access to health care services.

To respond to the health needs, World Health Organization (WHO) is funding mobile health clinics in collaboration with ALIMA and Médecins du Monde. Because meningitis is endemic in Burkina Faso, WHO has carried out a preventive meningitis vaccination campaign for 256 000 children between six months and 14 years old as well as a follow-up campaign for measles with the support of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and the Measles & Rubella Initiative. Health care workers are also battling a seasonal outbreak of dengue fever, which is affecting the general population and internally displaced people. Around 80% of the displaced people lives in host communities, with the rest in camps.

In addition to the day-to-day work of providing health services, WHO has been building capacity in the country through training on components of emergency management, including incident management and cash-flow strategies to facilitate access to health care for local and regional partners. Mass casualty management training will take place in January 2020.

Data gathering and surveillance is another area of work for WHO, which is conducting Health Resource Availability Mapping Systems, or HeRAMS, to assess and monitor the status of health facilities and the availability of health services and resources in areas affected by emergencies. This provides important data to enable decision-making and effective resource allocation. WHO is also collecting data on attacks on health facilities and workers through its Surveillance System of Attacks on Healthcare.

The Organization is also working to coordinate the humanitarian response with partners, including bi-monthly meetings, participation in the needs analysis process and planning the humanitarian response for 2020.