Sahel internal displacement tops 2 million as violence surges Format By Moussa Bougma in Ouahigouya, Burkina Faso On the evening of 31 December, as the hours ticked down to the New Year, 40-year-old Aguiratou Diallo was at home with her four children in their village near the town of Koumbri in northern Burkina Faso, when a group of armed men burst into the courtyard outside. “They threatened to hurt us if we were still there when they returned the next day. Then they fired into the air to scare us,” said Aguiratou, whose husband was away at work at the time. “I was so frightened. The whole family – including my grandmother, aunt, and my husband’s brothers and sisters – met up and left the village. We set off on foot without any belongings. There were about 40 of us, and it took us 20 hours to reach Ouahigouya.”