Est Region

Est Region has become Burkina Faso's most violent territory, with jihadist groups controlling or contesting the majority of its area. The March 2025 fall of Diapaga—just 25 kilometers from the Togolese border—demonstrated how armed groups could seize strategic towns despite government attempts to hold them. The region exemplifies ecosystem collapse, where security breakdown cascades through economic, social, and administrative systems until normal functioning ceases.

Before the crisis, Est Region's economy combined subsistence agriculture with gold mining and wildlife tourism (W-Arly-Pendjari National Park spans the border region). These activities have largely ceased in contested zones. Farmers cannot cultivate fields within jihadist territory; mines operate under armed group taxation; tourism halted as violence made access impossible. The formal economy has contracted to zones under government control—primarily urban centers and their immediate surroundings.

Humanitarian crisis reaches extreme proportions. Hundreds of thousands have fled, joining the national total of 2 million internally displaced. Those who remain face blockade conditions—supply routes cut, prices inflated, medical and educational services unavailable. Est Region demonstrates the end-state toward which other regions risk progressing if security collapse continues expanding southward.