Situation in the Sahel: Cécile Yougbare at the UN Council
On that day, Cécile Yougbare spoke on behalf of the organisation Médecins du Monde, but also as a Burkinabe citizen, a country unfortunately at the heart of an unprecedented escalation of violence.
- In Burkina Faso, 53% of internally displaced persons are women. Among them, three out of four identify as survivors of violence. Our medical teams have observed a resurgence of rapes during their mobile clinic visits.
- In 2021, over 800 civilians were killed in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger in attacks attributed to non-state armed groups. Other civilians died in abuses attributed to defence and security forces.
- As a humanitarian health association, Médecins du Monde is particularly concerned by attacks against healthcare personnel. In 2020 alone, 25 people were killed in Burkina Faso, and 6 were kidnapped or injured.
The Citizen Coalition was born out of the observation that the strategy implemented since 2013 to attempt to end the violence has not succeeded in restoring stability to the Sahel region. The security response, as it has been conducted, has not sufficiently taken into account the needs of the populations.
Here are the Coalition’s recommendations that should guide all actions in the Sahel:
- Place the protection of civilians at the heart of the response to the crisis in the Sahel
- Support political strategies to resolve the governance crisis in the Sahel
- Respond to humanitarian emergencies
- Combat impunity
During this presentation, Cécile Yougbare called for future communications from the Security Council to reflect this reality and emphasise that the fight against terrorism must not come at the expense of civilian protection.