Alle ingredienser til en farlig cocktail er der, hvis du er fattig og nødlidende: Langvarig tørke, krig og mangel på mad – men nu sætter de humanitære brigader sig i bevægelse mod den nordlige del af det vestafrikanske Sahel-land.
DAKAR, 6 February 2013 (IRIN) – Relief groups are considering resuming or expanding their operations in northern Mali after French and Malian troops took key towns from militant Islamists who controlled the region for nine months.
Insecurity in the north during this period disrupted and restricted aid operations and also prevented free movement of the local population.
“The problem of access (adgang) was double-edged. Many people who were being treated for malnutrition could not get to the health centres while health workers could not reach them. The main roads were blocked,” said Lucile Grosjean, the emergency communication coordinator for Action Against Hunger (ACF).
“The situation is still fluid. We have to wait and see how it evolves. Just a month ago Gao [northeastern town] was under the control of MUJAO [Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa],” Grosjean told IRIN.
MUJAO was one of three Islamist and Al-Qaeda-linked militant groups that seized swathes of territory in Mali’s north.
ACF, which runs nutrition and health programmes in northern Mali, continued operations throughout the period of Islamist rule, but only in the main towns and had to suspend field operations by mobile medical teams, Grosjean said.
She added that the priority now was to “expand our programme around Gao”.
Looted warehouses
Islamist fighters looted (plyndrede) World Food Programme (WFP) warehouses, forcing the closure of offices and the withdrawal of staff.
WFP, which has since been working through NGO partners in the north, is slowly resuming operations there, said Zlatan Milisic, WFP country director for Mali.
“The year 2013 represents a shift in our activities from a combined drought-and-conflict emergency response of last year to one focusing mainly on the consequences of the conflict in the north,” Milisic told IRIN.
Food transport on the Niger Riiver
“As soon as the barges (lastpramme) that operate on River Niger started going north from Mopti, we started planning for resumption of activities,” he said, explaining that WFP has since late January shipped some 600 tons of food for around 35.000 people to the Timbuktu area.
WFP plans to triple the amount of food sent to the north and open a transport route between Niamey, the capital of neighbouring Niger, and Gao, Milisic said.
The occupation of northern Mali worsened the plight of residents there (previously hit by serious food shortages and drought in 2011-2012).
The recent military offensive that has seen many food traders, mainly Arabs or Tuaregs, flee after reprisal attacks, has caused food and fuel price hikes, Oxfam said in a statement.
Markets are running out of stocks after looting, and food prices have now risen by almost 20 percent in Gao since the Franco-Malian armed intervention began on 11 January, Oxfam added.
Money is also getting scarce in Gao Region, where banks have been closed for several months, and cash supplies from the capital Bamako are dwindling due to restricted movement, ACF said.
“There is a huge food security problem which adds to the [insecurity] during the last nine months. Fields were not sufficiently cultivated and the harvest was low,” Grosjean explained.
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http://www.irinnews.org/Report/97420/Aid-groups-mull-expanding-in-northern-Mali
