This archive report was first published on 26 September 2019.
On September 26, 2019, the dusty town of Djibo in northern Burkina Faso became a byword for suffering in the country's seven-year-old struggle with jihadism.
More than 580 people have been killed since the insurgency spilled over from neighboring Mali, according to an AFP tally.
Attacks on emblems of the state, hit-and-run raids on remote villages, and brutal interpretations of Islamic law have forced an estimated 300,000 people to flee their homes.
Among them is Belen Boureima, a 74-year-old farmer who heads a family of 43 people—seven men, 13 women, and 23 children.
They abandoned their village of Gassalpalik, 70 kilometers from Djibo, and eventually washed up in Yagma, a village about 30km north of the capital Ouagadougou.
Belen said he had spent his entire life in Djibo and had never even left the area until now—but "when you are lost, you have to end up somewhere."
He recalled the attack on their village, where the attackers took everything from them—cows, sheep, goats—and killed the men.
"They went into people's homes and took animals and killed the men. I saw people getting killed. Many of them," he said, adding he was unable to give any accurate figure.
The family is now living in homes made available for free by the villagers, but it has no land—a crucial source of nutrition and income in a place where there is no work.
Nabonswende Zongo, an elderly villager who has been appointed to help the family, said the situation was "difficult."
