Humanitarians in the Eastern region launched, on Tuesday August 15, 2023, during a press briefing, a series of activities marking the commemoration of the World Day of ‘humanitarian aid.
This year again, the humanitarians of the Eastern region marked a halt to commemorate the World Humanitarian Day under the theme: “Whatever happens”.
The organizing committee of the event indicated, during a press conference, organized on Tuesday August 15, 2023, in Fada N’Gourma, that the commemoration of the event is punctuated by several activities in the city. of Fada N’Gourma.
These are, among other things, a day of sanitation in the health district, a radio program on humanitarian principles, a site visit and a public conference on “humanitarian action, community involvement, prevention against exploitation and sexual abuse, targeting of beneficiaries”, for the benefit of schoolchildren and students.
On the last day, Saturday August 19, a solemn ceremony, an exhibition of aid workers’ stands and a gala football match are planned.
The press conference was an opportunity for media men to ask several questions related to the humanitarian crisis and the intervention of actors.
Are you satisfied with the actions of the humanitarians? What about the collaboration between humanitarian actors and the coordination of their actions by the administrative authorities? What challenges do humanitarians face? What do you think of this suspicious census operation of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Fada N’Gourma which has caused so much ink and saliva to flow?
To this last question, the Regional Director (DR) in charge of humanitarian action in the East, Yacouba Ouédraogo cut it short: “there are bad apples everywhere and we are waiting to be edified”.
Regarding the actions of humanitarians in the East, he said that there is real cause for satisfaction. Indeed, despite the difficult security context, he acknowledged, humanitarian partners have always been able to play their part to relieve the suffering of populations in distress.
For the president of the organizing committee, Yandi Lompo, who is also the Director General (DG) of the Association for the Development of Village Communities (ADCV), it is necessary to emphasize the essential role of humanitarian workers who, at the risk of their lives , work tirelessly to provide assistance, care and comfort to people in need.
In response to the concern about the coordination of humanitarian activities by the administrative authorities, Yacouba Ouédraogo assured that the humanitarians communicate permanently with the decentralized and decentralized services.
On the subject of collaboration between humanitarians, Jean Valea of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) indicated that there is a clear improvement, underlining, at the same time, the bottlenecks of the action humanitarian.
He cited, in particular, the security context which makes it difficult to access certain localities and the difficulties in financing certain activities.
It will be remembered that on August 19, 2003, 22 aid workers died in a bomb attack on the Canal Hotel in Baghdad, Iraq.
A tragic event that led the United Nations General Assembly to adopt a resolution designating August 19 as World Humanitarian Day.
Source: Burkina Information Agency