The UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) has allocated US$4 million to boost relief response in Burkina Faso, which is facing an unprecedented humanitarian emergency following a surge in attacks and intercommunity violence.

 “These funds will make an immediate difference for displaced people, most of whom are women and children. The CERF allocation will also help to quickly deliver assistance to communities hosting the displaced as well as to people who are still living in conflict-affected areas,” said Ursula Mueller, the UN Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, who is on a three-day visit to Burkina Faso since 2 March.

“Aid agencies will be able to immediately increase assistance for people in need of food, clean water, health care, and education support for children who are out of school,” Ms. Mueller said.

The violence has uprooted almost 70,000 people from their homes in the past two months alone. In total, over 100,000 people have been displaced, predominantly from Est, Nord, Centre-Nord and Sahel regions. Armed attacks have also forced the closure of more than 1,100 schools, depriving around 150,000 children of education, while some 120,000 people have no access to medical care as health centres in the violence-affected regions are closed or providing only minimal services.

The allocation comes in support of Burkina Faso’s $100 million emergency response plan, which was launched in February by the Government and the humanitarian community. The CERF funds will boost urgent assistance to 25,000 internally displaced persons in four sites, and 5,000 people in host communities in the Centre-Nord and Sahel regions. It will also support services for over 15,500 women and girls.

Established in 2005 as the UN’s global emergency response fund, CERF pools contributions from donors around the world into a single fund allowing humanitarian responders to deliver life-saving assistance whenever and wherever crises hit.