Ouagadougou: The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Trk expressed Thursday evening in Ouagadougou during a press conference, his ‘solidarity with the Burkinabè people in these difficult times “.
‘I came here to express my solidarity with the Burkinabè people in these difficult times and to commit myself at the highest level to the human rights situation,’ said Thursday evening in Ouagadougou during a press conference, the Haut- United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Trk.
Upon his arrival, the High Commissioner was received on Thursday morning by the President of the Transition, Captain Ibrahim Traoré at the Koulouba Palace in Ouagadougou. He thanked the head of state ‘for the extensive and in-depth discussions’ they had together.
Mr. Trk informed that these discussions focused ‘on the serious security, socio-economic and humanitarian situation, climate change and environmental degradation, inequalities, the need to forge a new social contract and ensure inclusive particip
ation of all Burkinabè in the Transition process.
According to Mr. Trk, there are 2.3 million people who are food insecure, plus 2 million internally displaced people and 800 thousand children out of school.
‘In total, 6.3 million people out of a population of 20 million are in need of humanitarian assistance,’ he said. Faced with ‘the scale of the needs of the populations’, he deplored the insufficiency of the resources made available to the country by the international community.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Trk reported that in 2023, his ‘office documented 1,335 violations and abuses of human rights and humanitarian law with at least 3,800 civilian victims.’ He specified that ‘armed groups are responsible for the vast majority of these violations against civilians.’
These are, he continued, ‘incidents involving more than 86% of the victims’. ‘Such gratuitous violence must stop and the perpetrators must be held accountable for their actions,’ he insisted.
The UN official
says he understands “perfectly the serious challenges facing the Defense and Security Forces (FDS) in Burkina Faso.”
He said he was ‘encouraged by statements that measures are being taken to ensure that their behavior is fully consistent with international humanitarian law and international human rights law.’
Source: Burkina Information Agency