North Mali braces for food shortages

Mali: On the banks of the river Niger at the Koriame Port, 18 kilometres from Timbuktu, Kadja Foun Koninta recounts the birth of her daughter. It was during the occupation of northern Mali by Islamist rebels, she explains, and she — together with her family of fishermen — had just arrived at Koriame when she unexpectedly went into labour. “I gave birth the same day we arrived,” she said. “People said it was because of fear.”

Koninta tells her story with nervous laughter, as she and two other women sit under the shade of a tree while an engine-powered machine chugs away, cleaning the sand and stone from millet. Their safety as fisherpeople traversing the river under rebel rule was precarious, and there is still an atmosphere of fear, with questions about life under the occupation quietly avoided. Their major concern now, they say, is impending food shortages.

“Everyone is worried about food shortages,” said Koninta. “We brought this millet with us from Mopti. When it is finished, we will have to buy more on the markets, and the prices are going up.”

Locals say the prices of millet and rice have risen significantly. A 1kg bag of rice has increased from 250 CFA (Dh1.99) to 300 CFA. The supply routes have been disrupted, and transportation is slow and expensive.

Along the riverbank, Hamadoun Abdu — who says he is 35 but looks much older — guards several hundred 50kg sacks of rice marked with the label of the US agency for international development, USaid.

The rice has been purchased by the UN World Food Programme (WFP), which is distributing 2,500 metric tonnes of food to around 145,000 beneficiaries in the Timbuktu region every month, and aims to reach more than 500,000 people around the country as a whole.

Hazardous transportation

“Food used to be transported here from Mopti by road, which would take less than a day,” said Abdu. “Now it has to come by pirogue [small boat], and takes four days. The rebellion made it very difficult to transport food, and there are shortages.”

On Thursday, four international agencies warned that northern Mali will descend to emergency levels of food insecurity in less than two months if conditions do not improve.

Recent food crises in the region have left many people weakened and still in a period of recovery.

Now, the war — which since January has led to the intervention of French and African military forces — has created long-term instability and huge displacement in northern Mali. The UN says 282,548 people are now registered displaced in Mali, and almost 50,000 refugees are in Burkina Faso and Niger, and 74,000 in Mauritania.

Food distribution has been disrupted by the closure of the Algerian border — an important route for supplies into northern Mali — and the departure of many traders. Aid agencies say herders have been unable to use traditional pastures and water points, while the falling value of livestock has made it harder to buy cereals.

“The situation in northern Mali is getting worse,” said Cod Ciss, head of mission for NGO InterSOS in Mali, who is conducting a fact-finding mission on the situation in the Timbuktu region. “People don’t want handouts, they want the means to feed themselves. But there is little food in the markets, and what they have is expensive.”

Severe shortages

Last month, large aid agencies meeting to analyse the food security situation found that one in five households faces food shortages categorised as “severe” in northern Mali, and “extreme” in the Tessalit and Abeibara districts in the Kidal region.

Three months after Timbuktu was liberated from Islamist control, the city is far from back to business as usual. Shops and banks remain closed and the market is quiet. The offices of international aid agencies — which have been working with local partners to address the successive food crises — are boarded up.

“There is not one international NGO in Timbktu whose office is open here at the moment. That has made the situation worse,” said Ciss. “The NGOs provided food, they created employment for local people, which brought income, and they invested in food security. Irrigation is the foundation of agriculture here, and the NGOs typically buy seeds, fertilisers, water pumps and fuel. Their departure has augmented poverty in the region.”

Oxfam said the security situation had worsened since the rebels left.