The Landlocked Country...

Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in West Africa with ~23 million Burkinabés. There are 63 ethnic groups and about 8,000 villages in the beautiful countryside.

The UN ranked Burkina Faso as the third-poorest country in the world. Nearly half the population lives below the poverty line. The country is roughly 75% rural and has faced severe floods in 2007, 2009, and 2010 and droughts in the mid-90s and late '80s that hampered agriculture. While the birthrate is the fourth highest globally (42.81 births per 1,000 people), life expectancy is among the lowest (63 years).

According to the CIA's World Fact Book, less than 30% of the population is literate, and children spend only 6 years in school. While French is the official language, 90% of the population also speaks Mooré or Jula, native African languages.  

As for the religious breakdown, 64% are Muslim, 6% are Animist, 20% are Catholic, 9% are Protestant, 0.6% are other, and 0.4% have no religious affiliation.