A Theater Festival in Burkina Faso Provides Comfort

Fanta Charlotte Dabone, a mother of three from the war-torn West African nation of Burkina Faso, has had a difficult three years.

After extremists attacked her hamlet, she left her husband and her property behind and escaped. She has been relocating frequently ever since, finding it difficult to make ends meet and purchase enough food for her kids, who include a toddler who is two years old.

In the past, Burkina Faso, a 23 million-person landlocked country in the arid Sahel region south of the Sahara, was well-known for its skilled craftsmanship and thriving cultural scene, which included well-known film and theater festivals.

However, the nation has come to represent the region’s security issue recently. It has been rocked by two subsequent military takeovers and bloodshed by extremist organizations and the government forces battling them, much of which has crossed the Mali border.

Rather, things got worse: conservative estimates show that over 60% of the country is currently ungoverned, over 2 million people have lost their homes, and about 6.5 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance to survive.

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