Dafra Circus, a troupe from Burkina Faso (a landlocked West African nation gripped by jihadist insurgency for over a decade), has staged a performance called "Souffle" (Breath) aimed at expressing the trauma suffered by the country's children — using acrobatics, dance, and juggling to depict scenes too painful for words. The show, which recently played to hundreds in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, was inspired by the lived experiences of the performers themselves, all of whom say they have been personally affected by the conflict. According to the United Nations, more than 2,200 children in Burkina Faso endured grave abuses between 2022 and 2024, making them the most affected segment of the population in a crisis marked by murder, abductions, and recruitment of child soldiers.