Tørke, krig og mange fordrevne
DAKAR, 15 February 2012 (IRIN) – Aid workers are facing a trio of challenges in northern Mali: extensive drought-induced food insecurity and pasture shortages; conflict between Tuaregs and the Malian army; and the resulting displacement of thousands more Tuaregs.
This is the conclusion from aid agencies on the ground.
The huge West african country has some three million people who are predicted to be vulnerable to severe food insecurity, and is one of eight Sahelian states facing food insecurity this year due to a mixture of poor 2011 rains, region-wide high food prices, chronic vulnerability and poverty.
– All expectations are that the current security crisis will make food insecurity worse, said Mali country director for Catholic Relief Services, Timothy Bishop.
In its latest February Sahel strategy, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in West Africa estimates over 10 million people will be food insecure this year, unless they receive help soon.
Among the seven affected areas – Kayes, Kouklikoro, Ségou, Mopti, Sikasso, Timbuktu and Gao – the latter two have seen fighting between Tuareg group Movement National pour la Liberation de l’Azawad (MNLA) and the Malian army.
Fighting in and around Ménaka in Gao Region has led to 26.000 internally displaced persons (fordrevne); while 4.000 are displaced in villages around Augelhoc, 150 km northeast of Kidal; and thousands more are expected to be displaced in Kidal’s Tessalit area, as well as Léré and Niafunké in Timbuktu, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
Meanwhile, a yet-to-be-confirmed figure of 15.000 Malians have fled across the border to Niger; some 13.000 to Mauritania, and 8.000 to Burkina Faso, according to UNHCR.
Scale-up “complicated”
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