Speeches Shim
Sinjar is a rural district in Iraq's northwest Ninewa province bisected by the Sinjar Mountains. In 2016, The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) occupied Sinjar and targeted the district’s Yezidi residents for genocide. ISIS was eventually defeated, and Sinjar liberated, but displaced residents of Sinjar attempting to return home faced a number of overwhelming challenges. The spread of the COVID-19 virus in recent months further complicated the situation, spurring many displaced Yezidi families to accelerate their return home in order to reduce potential exposure to the virus in crowded camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs). The accelerated timeline prevented many families from securing livelihoods and income-generating opportunities necessary to support their families and restore their homes.
Fada N’Gourma and Gayéri are two communes located in Est region, Burkina Faso that have been targets of multiple attacks by extremist organizations. Following each attack, particularly those on churches, members of predominantly Muslim groups—like the Peulh—are accused of cooperating with terrorist groups. As a result, Peulh community members are stigmatized by other community members. Each attack renews fears that further cleavages will be sewn among different ethnic and religious groups within these communities.
Marginalized communities throughout Burkina Faso face extraordinary hurdles. Lacking identity documentation is often cited as one of the biggest challenges to mobility and accessing key public services.
Bracitos is a small village of 300 inhabitants located just 20 minutes from the municipal seat of El Tarra, a place emblematic of the conflict in the Catatumbo region for events like the paramilitary raids in 2003 and the displacement of dozens of families in 2012. As the starting point for the Road Ring for Peace, a highway critical to peace and economic inclusion of the Catatumbo region, the town has become an important crossroads for the mobility of goods and services.
Many farmers could not access their fields in the Nord region of Burkina Faso in November 2019, due to insecurity and Violent Extremist Organizations (VEO) attacks. This provoked food insecurity and economic hardship for some local communities. With the rainy season coming to an end, USAID/OTI's Burkina Faso Regional Program, in collaboration with Groupement NAAN, a local network of farmers, seized upon this short window of opportunity to support and mobilize communities in target communes (Tangaye, Thiou, Koumbri, Solle) affected by VEO threats, around values of solidarity and mutual aid.
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