The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is working to provide food and fight the malnutrition of the conflict-affected people in Mali, West Africa, as shown in a new video released on 11 December 2012.
Insecurity following a coup earlier this year has displaced an estimated 200,000 people in Mali, while about the same number have fled to neighbouring countries. Mali is also recovering from a severe drought.
Jane Howard, spokesperson for WFP, discusses the current food situation northern Mali. WFP has focused on preventing malnutrition of young children and school-aged children through the Emergency School Feeding programme.
Jane Howard: “”The situation in the north of Mali is very worrying from a food point of view, in particular we are quite concerned about high rates of malnutrition among young children.”
WFP is working with nine international NGO partners in Timbuktu, Gao and Kidal: ACTED, Action Contre la Faim, Africare, CARE, Handicap International, Islamic Relief, OXFAM, Solidarités International and Norwegian Church Aid.
This year, WFP has reached 1.2 million people in Mali with assistance, including 260,000 people in conflicted-affected areas. This includes internally displaced people.
In the coming months, WFP is aiming to help more than 400,000 food-insecure people in the North who are struggling to feed their families, and more than 130,000 people in the South, of whom most have either been displaced for months or are hosting displaced families.
Sources:
Photo by Omar Barry/Islamic Relief
World Food Programme News
