Operational Highlights
• The UN Refugee Agency provides protection and multi-sectorial assistance in coordination with CONAREF (Commission Nationale Pour les Réfugiés) along with UN Agencies and various NGOs to 49,975 Malian Refugees (13,577 households) which include 10,490 newly arrived refugees following the military offensive of 11 January.
• Coordination: UNHCR has signed sub-agreements with 17 NGOs and has operational partnerships with a variety of distinguished NGOs, providing quality services in sectors raging from protection, health, education, shelter, communal infrastructures, animal health and husbandry, environment preservation, food security, nutrition and WASH, to partnerships that exist exclusively for the benefit of host communities.
• Consolidation of Camps: UNHCR has consolidated 3 official camps (Goudoubo, Mentao and Sag-nioniogo) in order to improve UNHCR’s ability to deliver assistance as well as relocating the refugees at a safer distance from the border. Since mid-October 2012, over 11,300 refugees have been relocated from camps and spontaneous site located near the border.
• Launch of Biometric Registration: UNHCR in Burkina Faso has launched biometric Level III registration on the 19 August. With the use of biometric registration technology, UNHCR will be able to update its database of special needs of refugees and thus improve its protection and assistance as well as to establish a more precise number of refugees. (see second page for more information)
• Launch of Food and Cash Transfers by UNHCR-WFP: On the 21 and 22 of August in Sag-nioniogo camp, WFP in collaboration with UNHCR launched the first cash-transfers to refugees in Burkina Faso, starting with Sag-nioniogo camp, in an effort to adapt food assistance to the current needs of the refugee population. (see second page for more information)