Fitil Brotherhood

New coup in Burkina Faso. Lieutenant Colonel Damiba, who deposed President-elect Roch Kabore last January, was himself deposed in a coup that began Friday and, after two days of tension, agreed to step aside. The new strongman is Captain Ibrahim Traoré. Traoré motivated this new change at the top with his predecessor's inability to cope with violent extremism in the country. Insecurity, linked to the broader context of activism of Islamist groups in the Sahel, is on the rise in Burkina Faso: it has caused 2 million displaced persons (about 10% of the population) and the death of over 3,000 people since the beginning of the year (already one third more than in 2021). But Damiba also pays for his choice of international allies.

FITIL ONLUS together with ACLEM, our Burkinabe partner are helping families who escaped from their village of Piselé population to Kinfangué.

As you may know the situation in Burkina Faso caught; in a downward spiral of terrorism, ethnic tension, a weak government and other related problems is becoming always more dangerous (refer to LINKS - The New Humanitarian, Human Right Watch and Crisis Group on our website for accounts of the ongoing situation in Burkina Faso). FITIL ONLUS together with ACLEM, our Burkinabe partner are helping families who escaped from their village of Piselé population to Kinfangué. As Filippo Grande of the UN Refugee Agency has written: “It is here that the people are suffering; people being killed, women being raped, children hungry and with no school- We must intervene before this crisis becomes unmanagable". Armed groups terrorise the local populations, taking advantage of a weak government, of ethnic tensions and other internal problems. Below some testimonials collected in February 2020.

FITIL ONLUS together with ACLEM, our Burkinabe partner are sponsoring a group of 53 families, a total of 608 people, who escaped from their village of Piselé population to Kinfangué. Though the government and other agencies have promised to help, nothing until now has been done. The local villagers bring clothes and the food they can, but it is not a sufficient diet: this is a poor community and there is not enough. In addition there is no much needed medical care... nor the possibility of much education. The only school available is the Koranic School. Those who can, go to Ouagadougou each day to search for work to help their families. Everything is missing!! Even soap to wash, thus threatening disease.

Cheik Ibrahim is responsable for bringing these refugees here to this place. The refugees asked me to speak with him...and when we met, he gave me the following information: The refugees were all inhabitants of the village of PISILE in the comune of DJIBO in the north of Burkina Faso. One evening around 6, the terrorists entered their village and began to shoot at the people. They killed 8 and then left town. The people who escaped came back but found the terrorists were still in the village.. so they decided to flee. Their next refuge was also attacked and they were finally given asylum in a Koranic school in Kinfangué.