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NEWS & LETTERS, February-March 2006Food crisis in Mali continuesThe Gambia--Mali is not in a state of famine. Instead, like many countries in Africa, Mali suffers from deep rooted poverty resulting in many deaths every year. This issue can be addressed by long-term development and investment. Mali lies in the arid Sahel desert that stretches over 3,500 kilometers from Mauritania in the west to Chad in the east. Years of successive drought and a vicious plague of locusts in 2004 left crops and vegetation stripped bare. As a result, food stores across the region are empty, herds of animals have died and millions are hungry. Mali is one of the poorest of the world’s countries. The average Malian lives under the mercy of poverty with not enough money to eat the food available in the market. In towns like Gao in eastern Mali, skeletal, malnourished babies can be found in homes just yards from markets where essential foodstuffs are available. In the fields outside the capital, Bamako, farmers, be they men, women or children, can be seen bent double at their fields turning the soil for hours with the hope that they will have a good harvest. The government of Mali, which has distributed 30,000 tons of food since the end of 2004, as well as having subsidized staple foods and organized food-for-work programs, has been praised by many the world over for its handling of the crisis. The negative side is that it used up its limited stocks of food too early and the emergency food reserves are empty. Mali needs free food distributions since Malians had lowered their consumption to cope with their predicaments. Communities have begun selling breeding animals from their herds, weakening their position in future years. However the humanitarian workers and the government have all been working well during difficult times to prevent the situation from escalating. --Fabakary Taal |
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