Sahel towns in Burkina Faso are struggling to cope with a massive influx of new inhabitants.

Locals are beginning to flee from conflict and insecurity in the north of the country.

The town of Kaya has seen its population quadruple, placing strain on schools and landowners who provide shelter.

"These are cities that are going to develop on several levels, you are going to have a population that actually has the means to live in the city, that will have access to water, education, health, and you will have all around, you will have a band all around these cities that will be made up of people who have been left behind but who will be on the margins", said Armand Joseph Kaboré, Permanent Secretary of the Citizen Laboratory.

Mayor of Kaya Boukaré Ouedraogo is overwhelmed by the cost of housing the internally displaced persons.

"This large movement of displaced people in the town of Kaya was not anticipated. As a result, all our planning, what we have completed, what we have invested in, did not take into account the displaced people, and this has become a cost", he said.

Of the displaced, over 400,000 people will be unable to vote because they lost identification papers or were unable to register. The Independent Electoral commission has said it could not register prospective voters in 15,000 villages due to insecurity. However, it said that residents could travel elsewhere in the country to register and vote.