This archive report was first published on 18 October 2019.
Located in southwest Burkina Faso, Bobo-Dioulasso was once a popular destination for Western tourists, attracting thousands of visitors each year. However, the city's tourism industry has been severely impacted by the growing threat of jihadist attacks in the region.
"They've placed us in the red zone, which means the tourists aren't coming like before. Even the aid workers don't come," said Antoine Atiou, governor of Burkina Faso's Hauts-Bassins region, in an interview with AFP in 2019.
The "red zone" refers to the risk of jihadist attacks, a top-end warning by Western embassies to travelers wanting to visit southwest Burkina and the economic capital, Bobo-Dioulasso. The impact has been brutal for local businesses, with the city's hotels empty, heritage sites quiet, and souvenir shops shuttered.
"It's hard, hard, hard!... We haven't seen a tourist for a fortnight," said Sanou Moumouni, a guide at the city's mosque and in the historic Kibidwe district for 22 years. In the past, he could earn up to 100,000 CFA francs (Sh17,604) in two days, but he has not made 5,000 francs (Sh880) in the last three months.
"I'm living on loans," he said. "We no longer have work because of the murderers. We're sick of it." The north and the east of the landlocked country in West Africa endure frequent Islamist attacks, which have claimed some 600 lives in the past four years. There have also been some raids in the west.
"Everyone came through Bobo. We really were a tourist region. Now it's over," said Benjamin Ouedraogo, owner of the Watinoma hotel and president of the professional association of hotel and restaurant owners in High Basins. He said hotels in the region only do a third of the business they did before the attacks.
Ministry of tourism statistics from 2017 show that of about half a million annual visitors to Burkina Faso, fewer than 150,000 came from abroad -- down 5.6 percent from 2015. The number of nights stayed in the country by Westerners fell from 30,000 in 2012 to fewer than 15,000 in 2017.
"This trend has probably sped up in 2018 and 2019," a local tour operator said. Renowned for its traditional masks, batik print textiles, and the balafon -- a West African instrument like a xylophone -- Bobo attracted thousands of Western tourists.
"It's my wife who meets our needs," said Sanon Bissiri, an artist, who used to sell his textiles to an Italian association that made regular visits. "I come in to work each day on foot, six kilometres (nearly four miles). I can't afford medicine for my son with his cough." Bobo's nightlife is not what it was, though the locally-brewed beer is the same.
