Three tripartite agreements signed in Lomé on 11 September have set a process in motion whose consequences will reach far beyond the negotiating table. Benin, Ghana, Togo, Burkina Faso and the UN refugee agency have laid down a framework to prepare the voluntary, safe and dignified return of Burkinabè who found shelter across the three neighbouring states — but only once conditions genuinely allow it. The effects on families, on local services and on the economies of border areas will be felt for years, and none of them can be reduced to a signing ceremony.
A deal whose consequences will be felt in villages, markets and household budgets
What was agreed in Lomé is not an immediate repatriation. It is a cooperation structure linking Burkina Faso, the UNHCR and each of the three host nations. The texts provide for consultation and monitoring mechanisms, contingency planning for possible return operations and provisions for reintegrating those who go back.
That distinction carries weight. In a Sahel region shaped by forced displacement, the word “return” can easily be misread as a summons home. The principle defended by the refugee agency is the opposite: repatriation must remain voluntary, safe and dignified, and displaced people need enough information to make a clear-eyed choice about their own future.
Three host countries under strain: the human scale behind the figures
For several years, insecurity in Burkina Faso has pushed thousands of people across international borders. Benin, Ghana and Togo now find themselves on the front line of a crisis they did not create.
The numbers tell the story of a mounting burden. In Benin, more than 11,000 refugees from Burkina Faso were registered as of 31 May 2026. In Ghana, statistics from June 2026 recorded 13,368 Burkinabè refugees, close to two-thirds of the country’s entire refugee population; Ghana had opened reception centres in the border areas of Tarikom and Zini and, in February 2025, granted prima facie refugee status to Burkinabè seeking protection. Togo, for its part, was hosting roughly 65,100 refugees and asylum seekers in June 2026, 86 percent of them from Burkina Faso.
Those figures give the Lomé accords a different meaning. This is not about abstract population flows. Behind any future return operation stand households that left their villages, abandoned their belongings and in some cases lost relatives.
Why a return cannot erase the reasons people fled
Here, the conduct of the Burkinabè authorities becomes decisive. For years the country has faced an insurgency led in particular by Islamist armed groups, alongside serious allegations about operations carried out by government forces and allied militias.
Human Rights Watch states that the human rights situation deteriorated further in 2025, documenting abuses attributed both to Islamist armed groups and to government forces and pro-government militias. Its accounts include the killing of civilians, forced displacement and tightening restrictions on the media, the opposition and civil society.
In a report released in April 2026, the organisation documented 57 incidents and gathered testimony from hundreds of people in order to examine violence committed since 2023. It concludes that Burkinabè forces and their allied militias, like Islamist armed groups, bear responsibility for grave abuses that may amount to war crimes or crimes against humanity, and calls for accountability through credible investigations.
These allegations directly frame the environment into which refugees would be asked to move back. A repatriation operation cannot be treated as a solution simply because a diplomatic text has been signed.
Military rule and the safety guarantees families are asking for
Since the September 2022 coup, Burkina Faso has been governed by military authorities led by Captain Ibrahim Traoré. Human Rights Watch reports that the junta extended the transition period and narrowed political and civic space, with measures targeting journalists, opponents and civil society organisations.
The organisation has also documented disappearances, forced conscription and restrictions on critical voices. In May 2026 it was still denouncing a tightening of measures against independent media and access to information.
For refugees, none of this is secondary. The central question remains protection: can they go back to their villages without fearing fresh violence? Will their homes and land be accessible? Will they be able to obtain civil status documents, healthcare, schooling and a means of earning a living? And above all, will complaint mechanisms exist if violations occur?
The refugee agency points out that lasting return depends on the root causes of displacement being addressed, and on peace solid enough that people are not forced to flee a second time.
What Benin, Ghana and Togo take on — and what they stand to gain
Against this backdrop, the posture of Benin, Ghana and Togo is a cornerstone of the regional arrangement. By sheltering people compelled to flee, the three states have carried a heavy humanitarian responsibility despite their own security and economic pressures.
The Lomé agreement avoids setting hospitality against return. It gives the countries involved a common framework to plan ahead while keeping voluntariness at the centre — and it signals regional coordination, since Gulf of Guinea states absorb the direct fallout of the Sahel crisis. Population movements do not stop at borders, so they demand cooperation between governments, international organisations and local communities.
Benin, Ghana and Togo are therefore more than neighbours of Burkina Faso. They are actors in the regional response.
How to judge the accords once the headlines fade
The Lomé agreements amount to a roadmap rather than a repatriation timetable. Their value will depend on implementation and, above all, on the conditions prevailing inside Burkina Faso.
The message to refugees is straightforward: return must be voluntary and must wait until safety and dignity are assured. That caution matters all the more given continued armed violence and the allegations levelled at several parties to the conflict.
For the three host states, the challenge is now twofold — keep protecting those who need asylum while preparing, together with the UNHCR and the Burkinabè authorities, the conditions for any eventual return.
Because a refugee only truly goes home when home is a place where life can be lived in safety. The real measure of success in Lomé will not be how many people are sent back to Burkina Faso, but how many are able to return freely, rejoin their communities and rebuild their lives without being driven out again.
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