World Food Programme launches emergency appeal for Mali

The World Food Programme said it had to "accelerate its operations" in central, southeastern and northern Mali in response to the explosion of displaced people. Here a displaced person in the Faladie camp, May 14, 2019. © Michèle Cattani / AFP

Text by: David Baché

2 min

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is launching an emergency appeal for Mali, particularly for the Menaka region. In a statement released Wednesday (May 17th), the organization said it needed immediate funding of $110 million "to increase its emergency food and nutrition assistance."

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The World Food Programme (WFP) in Mali wants to "accelerate its operations" in the centre, south-east and north of the country, where 3.8 million Malians are in need of emergency assistance. This reinforcement should target "hard-to-reach areas like Menaka, where the number of people forced to flee their homes continues to grow," WFP said.

In this region of northeastern Mali, the breakthrough of the Islamic State terrorist group in the Sahel for more than a year has created nearly 100,000 internally displaced people, according to UN figures. Today, in Menaka, "hunger is reaching catastrophic levels," the organization continues. These are the most alarming levels since 2014, when a "Cadre harmonisé" was created, which makes it possible to quantify the needs related to food insecurity.

WFP is also concerned about the approaching lean season (between two harvests) and "the spread of insecurity in the previously secure southern and western regions of Mali". The spread of insecurity, which, according to WFP, "has a negative impact on agriculture, fisheries and livestock production", making it even more difficult for families to access food. Not to mention the surge in prices: millet has increased by 55%, maize by 43%, rice by 27% compared to five-year averages, says WFP.

For all these reasons, the organization regrets that it has already had to halve its food rations in April and May. "Without adequate funding," WFP will have to cut them even further from next month.

► Read also: WFP must ration aid to refugees in Africa due to lack of funding

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Read on on the same topics:

• Mali
• Humanitarian
• UN
• Sahel