UN alarmed as number of displaced in central Sahel reaches nearly four million

Displaced women prepare food in the Kaya camp, 100 kms North of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. AP - Sophie Garcia

The United Nations on Friday raised the alarm about a displacement crisis in the central Sahel where nearly four million people have been forced to flee their homes in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.

The number is more than double that of six years ago, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said, before a wave of coups in a region bedevilled by instability and violence.