Dogon-folket i den enorme vestafrikanske ørkennation, Mali, er ramt af to kriser på én gang: Regnen er udeblevet og i flere år har høsten været ringe – samtidig er turisterne blevet væk på grund af sikkerhedssituationen og de er ellers ivrige nok for at opleve det spændende folkeslag.
NOMBORI, 16 January 2014 (IRIN): The region around Bandiagara, in central Mali’s Mopti Region, is struggling to cope with (klare) the dual crises of successive poor harvests and the near-total collapse of its once-thriving tourist industry.
Mere om Dogon-folket på http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogon_people
Nestled among giant boulders (kampesten) at the base of the Bandiagara Escarpment is the mud-built village of Nombori, home to around 1.200 ethnic Dogon people. There, Pilif Guindo’s small clinic is struggling to cope with a steady increase in child malnutrition.
The clinic sees 15 new cases of malnutrition per week, a threefold increase in as many years, explains Guindo, a doctor who practices both modern and traditional medicine.
“The people used to eat well here. But now, the mothers are not eating well, and the babies are not getting milk,” he tells IRIN
Guindo says he usually hands out vitamin B tablets and advises the children to eat more. But after years of poor rains and disappointing harvests of the staple, millet (hirse), food insecurity is rife.
A recent government food-security study, not yet out, found that Bandiagara was currently the area most at risk.
After an extended dry spell in September, other parts of the country with below-average harvests are Koulikoro, Ségou and Kayes, according to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS Net).
Depleting food stocks (tomme madlagre)
A December 2013 food-security assessment by the government and partners showed Bandiagara at “phase 3”, or crisis levels, with 167.479 inhabitants either in crisis or emergency mode.
Sally Haydock, head of the World Food Programme (WFP) in Mali, said: “It is clear that people have fewer than two months’ stocks after the harvest.”
WFP expects those stocks to run out by the end of January,.
The agency says it is organizing food delivery to the area, and that it is looking into ways to reduce people’s vulnerability to drought and other shocks. WFP also hopes to start undertaking regular food-security assessments in the region soon.
The NGO Yam-Giribolo-Tumo (YAGTU), which monitors malnutrition levels around Bandiagara, estimates malnutrition levels have jumped by as much as 50 percent in Bandiagara over the last two years.
YAGTU runs a small plant that produces protein-rich dietary supplements, which are primarily distributed to children.
The organization aims to improve an otherwise nutritionally insufficient diet (kost), in which millet is served with a sauce made from the leaves of the Baobab tree. The organization estimates that just 10 percent of the land around the Dogon country is suitable for cultivation.
Tourists gone
Læs videre på
http://www.irinnews.org/report/99479/mali-s-dogon-hit-by-double-crisis
