Forgotten conflicts: Burkina Faso, Guinea and Cameroon

The war in Ukraine overshadows other major humanitarian crises in the world media. According to the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), Ukraine has received five times more media coverage and four times more funding than the other top 10 displacement crises combined. Burkina Faso is in one of the most challenging situations, where the migration of 2 million people has been recognised as the most neglected crisis in the world. The local militias currently control up to 40% of the country’s territory. Approximately 800,000 people in these areas lack access to services, and a quarter of the population depends on humanitarian aid.

Kidnapping is a new fundraising method used by Cameroonian separatists in Ambazonia. At the end of May this year, rebels kidnapped 30 women from a village northwest of the country for “allowing themselves to be manipulated by the Cameroonian government.” The separatist gangs responsible for these kidnappings are part of the unorganised structure that rules the region, where the insurgents carry out attacks against the government and impose illegal taxes and fees on locals, levied monthly on women, men and children.

Clashes with the army and security forces have escalated in Guinea for several weeks as protests against the military transitional government supposed to oversee a return to constitutionally based democratic rule. Relations between the opposition parties and the interim government’s prime minister, Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, are also steadily deteriorating.