More than 200 Burkinabè expelled from neighboring Ghana
More than 200 Burkinabè, including women and children, have arrived in the south-west of Burkina Faso after they were expelled from neighboring Ghana, the regional governor and returnees told reporters on Thursday.
“Since 11 July, we have started registering compatriots repatriated from Ghana”, said Boureima Sawadogo, the governor of South-West Burkina Faso, the region bordering Ghana that is hosting the displaced persons.
On Tuesday, 54 people were received, according to the governor, who added that a census was still underway. “More than 200 people have already been received in the commune of Ouessa”, the first town over the border, where a transit centre has been set up to receive these displaced persons, he said on Thursday morning.
Seydou Tall, a man in his seventies who had returned to Ghana three months earlier, told local media that he and others had been asked to leave the country, where some had lived for more than ten years. “We don’t know what we’re being accused of”, he lamented.
“Concerned by reports of expulsions of hundreds of Burkina Faso citizens, mainly women and children”, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) issued a statement on Wednesday calling on the government of Ghana to “put an end to these expulsions, which constitute a violation of the principle of non-refoulement, and to guarantee access to the territory and asylum to Burkina Faso nationals seeking international protection”.
Burkina Faso faces regular jihadist attacks over much of its territory, forcing people to flee. In a statement published on Thursday, the Ghanaian Ministry of National Security refuted these allegations, explaining that a temporary reception centre, with a capacity of 2,100 people, has been set up in the border region of Burkina Faso and is housing around 530 Burkina Faso refugees.