Attachments
Highlights
- In 2025, 2.73 million children received humanitarian assistance across Nutrition, Health, Child Protection, WASH and Education sectors.
- 110,006 children under five (including 57,203 girls) were treated for severe acute malnutrition (SAM) at facility and community levels — achieving 79% of the annual target. 314,971 children aged 6 months to 14 years were vaccinated against measles, representing 74% of the initial HAC target.
- 139,359 people, including 72,467 children, gained access to safe drinking water in the regions of Yaadga, Liptako, Koulse, Bankui, and Goulmou.
- 588,369 children (55% girls) accessed learning opportunities through alternative education modalities, including radio programmes and temporary learning spaces.
- As of 31 December 2025, Burkina Faso had received only 11 per cent of the initial requirements and 17 per cent of the addendum of the appeal for Humanitarian Action for Children (HAC) 2025, underscoring the urgent need for increased donor support.
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SITUATION OVERVIEW AND HUMANITARIAN NEEDS
Burkina Faso continued to experience a highly volatile and complex security environment, resulting in extensive humanitarian needs and severely restricted access. Violence continue to be reported across multiple regions, including ambushes, improvised explosive devices, checkpoints, and an increasing use of drones which is an emerging and evolving threat. These dynamics further heightened risks for civilians and humanitarian personnel, while reducing the predictability of movements along critical supply corridors.
Humanitarian access remained extremely limited in conflict-affected areas, due to ongoing insecurity, sabotage of strategic routes, and deteriorating road infrastructure. These constraints led to frequent delays or suspensions of humanitarian operations, impeding the delivery of essential health and nutrition supplies, WASH services, and education support, particularly in hard-to-reach locations.
The crisis continued to cause large‑scale displacement. Although there are no updated official figures on internal displacement, such movements are still being reported. This indicates ongoing, significant population movements driven by insecurity, and humanitarian needs therefore remain high. However, in 2025, the relative improvement of security conditions in some areas made possible the return and resettlement of 1,097,622 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) to their places of origin. This positive development was particularly evident in the Koulse region, notably in communes such as Kaya, Pissila, Barsalogho, Kongoussi, and Sabcé, where several schools and other basic social services have also reopened. At the same time, returnees continued to encounter difficulties in accessing basic services, and the vulnerabilities of internally displaced people and host communities was further compounded.
The Sourou and Bankui regions (formerly Boucle du Mouhoun) alone received more than half of the newly displaced population, peaking in April 2025. Other significantly affected regions included Nakambé, Yaadga, Liptako, and Koulsé, all facing mounting pressure on already limited basic services.
The sudden arrival of IDPs particularly in the Boucle du Mouhoun, surpassed existing operational capacities, requiring additional resources and partners to meet urgent needs.This context has created urgent needs for basic services, including food security, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), health, nutrition, and protection.In the Liptako region, the main road (Route Nationale 3) linking Kaya to Dori—which has required convoys for several years—showed a slight improvement in security: no major IED-related incidents were recorded over the past six months, and convoys were able to move without significant disruption. However, the frequency of convoys remains low, resulting in prolonged shortages of fuel and essential goods in Dori and surrounding localities. These shortages have triggered prices spikes, further increasing the vulnerability of local populations.
In 2025, an estimated 5.9 million people—including approximately 3.4 million children—required humanitarian assistance, reflecting the scale and severity of the crisis. Following the funding crisis, with several traditional donors reducing or withdrawing their support—a trend also observed in other crisis‑affected countries—the Humanitarian Country Team recommended a prioritization exercise. As a result, the overall number of people and children to be reached was reduced by 16 per cent and 12 per cent respectively across all sectors. The only exception was the nutrition sector, which adjusted its target for children with severe wasting admitted for treatment by a smaller reduction of 7 per cent.
The overall prioritization exercise has upheld the geographical targets in locations classified with severity level 4 and above, across the six previous emergency Regions: Centre-North, North, Sahel, Boucle du Mouhoun, East and Centre-East regions Despite the challenging humanitarian context, UNICEF and its partners implemented a multi-sectoral response to protect lives and restore dignified living conditions for the most vulnerable populations.