Saturday, February 02, 2013

Mali's Malaise

For the French, British and Americans once the Mali "rebels" are subdued the problem will be over but where war leads humanitarian crises follow. 3,000 French soldiers with logistic support from the US and UK have ousted the fighters of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and its allies from every town in the desert north, meeting little resistance along the way. The capture of Diabaly, Konna, Douentza, Gao, Timbuktu and Kidal has been fast and effective.

But aid agencies warn that the combination of insecurity, food shortages and drought threatens the lives of a million people.  Pledges to fund the African military mission raised $450 million this week. In contrast, an appeal for $370 million for humanitarian work in Mali has so far raised only $3 million, less than 1 percent of what is needed.

During the rebels' 10-month control over northern Mali, about 370,000 people fled their homes — 230,000 to the safer south of Mali and the other 140,000 across borders into Burkina Faso, Mauritania and Niger. Since the deployment of the French army, the number uprooted has increased again, with an additional 15,000 fleeing to neighboring countries and another 10,000 to the south. The UN refugee agency estimates there are about 50,000 displaced people in Bamako, most of them arriving only with what they could carry. Most of those who stay inside Mali’s borders end up with family members in the capital or other major towns such as Segou and Mopti. Mali is one of the world’s poorest countries, so the pressure of the new arrivals can stretch already fragile existences to a breaking point.

Aissata Yattara, a 40-year-old mother of six, has taken in 15 relatives over the last year from Timbuktu and elsewhere in the north. “They are family, I cannot abandon them,” she said. “Life was not easy before, now I support so many more but nobody is helping us,” she said.

Food supplies are perennially scarce in the arid parts of Mali, north of the Niger River. The World Food Program said 1.2 million Malians face food shortages due to the lingering effects of the 2011 drought and because of disruption to normal trade caused by the conflict. According to assessments carried out by aid workers, there are 210,000 people at risk of severe acute malnutrition.

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