Mr Tsitso Mohalake is 62 years old and lives in a remote farming village in north-eastern Lesotho. He and his wife care for their two children (one who is in school and one who is looking for work) as well as their three grandchildren whose young parents passed away following long illnesses. Due to poor rainfall last season, Mr Mohalake only managed to harvest enough to feed the family for a month and a half. Of his original five cattle, four have been stolen and the fifth has died.

With no plough animals, no milk for his grandchildren, no food, and being unable to migrate for work as many young people are doing, Mr Meholake started looking for work in his neighbourhood but jobs were in short supply. Eventually he was hired to offload sacks of grain for a local merchant and was paid R200 (about $23 US). Thanks to this hard-earned pay, his family now has two meals a day for the next month and a half. However, because there is not enough money to buy vegetables, the family’s diet of maize can only be supplemented with wild vegetables.

Mr Mohalake told us that he borrowed seeds from relatives and hired a sharecropper on credit to plant some of his farming plots. He will have to pay the sharecropper a significant sum, and is now deeply in debt. Unless he is able to find income from another source, his family faces severe food insecurity until the next harvest in May.

Mr Mohalake has heard that humanitarian assistance is coming to help vulnerable communities like his, but so far he has not received any support and said he’s not sure that his family will receive assistance because in his opinion there are families in the area whose needs are even more urgent. But without humanitarian assistance he doesn’t know how he will be able to feed his family until next harvest, and worries especially about his grandchildren.

Lesotho is a very small country, and media and humanitarian attention has been slow to arrive - perhaps in part due to the focus on high-profile crises in the Horn of Africa and across the Sahel. While these large crises require a great deal of attention, there is a risk that countries like Lesotho and families like Mohalake’s may be overlooked.

CARE has been one of the first agencies to begin responding to this crisis, beginning with the distribution of seeds to vulnerable families so that they are able to plant in the current agricultural season. This is vital as unless farmers have the support they need to plant next year’s harvest, the emergency is likely to deepen and affect an even larger population. In addition to seed distributions, over the coming months CARE plans to deliver a combination of cash vouchers and cash-for-work programmes to enable people to buy food in the market.

In addition to an immediate response though, long-term assistance for recovery and future resilience is also vital. Even when the next harvest season arrives, Mr Mohalake will have to spend a significant portion of his income paying his debts from this crisis, and it will take time to rebuild investments and safety nets such as his cattle and other assets. For this reason, CARE works to connect its emergency response existing long-term CARE programming in Lesotho, which includes efforts to improve agricultural production, irrigation projects, community gardens and vegetable cultivation, and other programs such as Village Savings and Loans Associations.

This Revised Emergency Appeal now seeks CHF 2,093,612 in cash, kind, or services to support the Burkina Faso Red Cross Society (BRCS) in delivering assistance to 105,000 beneficiaries (17,500 households) for a total duration of 12 months. The operation will be completed by the end of March 2013; the final report will be available by the end of June 2013 (three months after the end of the operation).

Tearfund partners are preparing to step up help for thousands of people displaced by Mali’s civil conflict.

Some 412,000 Malians have fled their homes in the country’s north following the insurgency by Ansar Dine last January and many are now living in tough conditions among southern communities already under pressure from the region’s food crisis.

Four partners have formed a consortium to improve people’s access to food, promote public health and to run catch- up classes for children who have missed out on their education.

Meanwhile West African states are preparing to send in troops to support the Malian army in their efforts to regain control of the northern territories.

Catastrophic year

Cath Candish, Tearfund’s Country Representative for Mali, said, ‘After a catastrophic year, Mali now stands on the brink of war - we are now focusing our efforts on assisting those worst affected, including displaced families and their host communities.’

Malians have also fled into neighbouring countries such as Niger, Burkina Faso and Mauritania.

Fatima Almazuke, who is in a refugee camp in Bobo, Burkina Faso, said, ‘The most difficult thing is leaving your house, friends and relatives in a hurry. We’re living in tents and conditions aren’t good.’

Fatima is being supported by Tearfund partner Alliance Chrétien pour la Coopération Economique et le Développement Social (ACCEDES) which has been distributing food to refugees.

12/05/2012 20:27 GMT

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 5, 2012 (AFP) - Mali on Wednesday appealed to the UN Security Council to urgently approve an international force against Islamist militants and rebels who have taken over the north of the country.

France hopes that a Security Council resolution authorizing international military action will be passed this month. The United Nations has, however, reaffirmed questions about the force and who will pay for it.

While the Mali government and African and UN envoys have sought political talks with the Islamists and Tuareg rebels, African nations are pressing for quick authorization of the force so the training of Malian forces can start in the New Year.

"My delegation wants to stress the urgency of deploying this international force," Traore Rokiatou Guikine, Mali's minister for African integration, told a Security Council meeting on the crisis.

"The daily suffering of the occupied Malian people is well known: there are floggings, amputation of limbs, summary executions, children forced to become soldiers, rapes, stoning, looting and the destruction of cultural and historic sites," she said.

"The most basic human rights are continually being violated by a horde of terrorists and other criminals organized in criminal bands, mainly by foreigners," the minister added.

Most of the troops for the intervention force are expected to come from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) which says it has a 3,300 strong force on standby to help the Mali military retake its territory.

Envoys for the African Union and ECOWAS pressed the Security Council to quickly back the force. They said it would give impetus to efforts to reach a political solution.

Tuareg rebels and Al-Qaeda linked Islamists seized much of northern Mali in March, taking advantage of a military coup in the capital. The international powers fear that the territory could become a safe haven base for militant action across the region.

France, Germany and other European nations are preparing help to train the Mali army, according to diplomats, but the United Nations has raised questions about planning for the force.

UN leader Ban Ki-moon has said military action should be a "last resort" if political talks fail but acknowledged that it will probably be necessary.

Ban fully shares the "profound sense of urgency regarding the crisis in Mali," assistant secretary general for political affairs Jeffrey Feltman told the meeting.

But he added that "any operations conducted by the force will need to be well-planned, coordinated and implemented" and only launched after political efforts have failed and standards for military training and readiness have been met.

Ban has also made it clear that the United Nations cannot pay for the force.

ECOWAS commission president Kadre Desire Ouedraogo said African nations and the major powers were ready to finance the operation. He said there would be a financial contributors' meeting once the Security Council has given its authorization.

Some diplomats have said the force would need up to $500 million in its first year.

Preparations for a military intervention are gathering pace and officials say a campaign could be launched in September next year when Mali's rainy season is over.

Gerard Araud, France's UN ambassador, said his country was drafting a resolution that would allow the ECOWAS force to go to Bamako to train the Mali military which he said needs to be "rebuilt nearly from scratch".

Araud said that talks between the government and representatives of the Ansar Dine Islamist group and the Tuareg Azawad National Liberation Movement had been started "under the pressure of the coming military operation."

tw/dw

© 1994-2012 Agence France-Presse

This bulletin aims to deepen and complement the existing information on market prices of cereals and pulses in Senegal with other trade indicators in order to inform on the current and future trends availability and accessibility to food by the most vulnerable households.

In a context of global price volatility and climate change affecting the harvest in the Sahel, the monitoring of food and labour market behaviour, as well as cross-border trade, has great relevance for food security in Senegal and the neighbouring countries.

Link: Burkina Faso: Complex emergency (Formerly food insecurity): Revised Emergency appeal n° MDRBF011

Militias train male and female recruits for possible offensive amid anger over delayed international intervention.

Read the report and watch the video on the Guardian.

SC/10845

Security Council
6879th Meeting (AM)

As the international community considered responses to the multiple crises in Mali, including authorization of an African-led military force, Malians themselves needed to be at the centre of efforts to restore their democracy to health and fully recover their territory, the United Nations political affairs chief told the Security Council this morning.

“The Malian leaders must shoulder their responsibilities and work together, inclusively, for the interests of the Malian people and the region,” Jeffrey Feltman, Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, said as he introduced the Secretary-General’s report on the West African country, which has suffered a coup and has had much of its north overrun by insurgents. “The international community must with urgency do all it can to assist,” he added.

Noting the report’s advocacy for a multifaceted, integrated response to the crisis, he said that, as a first step, international support should be focused on supporting Malian authorities in conducting an inclusive national dialogue aimed at reaching consensus on a road map aimed at a full return to constitutional order, as well as addressing the grievances of groups in the north. Secondly, efforts to bring about a negotiated settlement with armed groups who had disavowed ties with terrorists should continue in earnest.

“Finally”, Mr. Feltman said, “a well-conceived and executed military intervention in the north should be conducted as a last resort to address terrorist and criminal elements, while planning should be undertaken for stabilization activities in recovered areas”. While that option was being considered, it could also provide useful leverage to the political process, which remained the priority option, he stressed.

Surveying recent developments, he said that the political situation in the Malian capital, Bamako, had become more complex as a result of deep divisions between political stakeholders, with formal dialogue delayed due to disagreements and now scheduled for next week. In the meantime, meetings had taken place between representatives of some armed groups in the north and the Mediator for the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), President Blaise Compaoré of Burkina Faso, which had resulted in a communiqué affirming basic principles of national unity and respect for human rights.

Meanwhile, the security situation in the north continued to deteriorate, he said, with clashes between the major movements, and reports that Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) had backed at least one group, the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) in its battles with the Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), which had participated in negotiations facilitated by the Burkinabe mediation. A third group, Ansar Dine, had also participated in the meetings while it continued fighting and holding territory. There were continuing reports of jihadists and terrorist elements arriving to join the armed groups.

Gross human rights abuses continued as well, he said, including summary and extrajudicial execution, sexual and gender-based violence, recruitment and use of child soldiers and torture. Ansar Dine continued to destroy historical, cultural and holy sites in Timbuktu. Over 412,000 persons had fled the north, with half of them crossing borders into neighbouring countries. An estimated 5 million persons had been affected by the conflict, with about 600,000 children under five facing severe malnutrition.

Since the adoption of resolution 2071 on 12 October, he said, the United Nations system had accelerated efforts to give strong impetus to the political process in Mali, including planning for elections, for which an assessment mission was dispatched. The Special Envoy for the Sahel, Romano Prodi, had also been active on broader Sahel issues, which were vital to address as part of the solution to the Malian crisis, he stressed. In addition, to help Malians bridge differences, the Secretary-General intended to establish a full-time United Nations political presence in Bamako.

United Nations military and police planners had also worked closely with ECOWAS and the African Union, in close consultation with Malian authorities, in developing a strategic operational framework for the proposed African-led International Support Mission in Mali (AFISMA), which would support Malian defence forces in operations to restore the territorial integrity of the country. Questions remained, however, regarding how the international and Malian forces would be led, sustained, trained equipped and financed. Moreover, division of tasks between the forces, command and control, civilian oversight and timelines were issues that still needed to be addressed.

He stressed that, should the Council decide to authorize the deployment of AFISMA, its operations must be coordinated effectively and must be carried out in strict compliance with international humanitarian and human rights law, possibly monitored by human rights officers as proposed by the Secretary-General. Benchmarks, he suggested, could also be set to make sure that any military intervention was successful and in conformity with international standards.

Noting that the United Nations had limited ability to deliver a support package to the force, he said it could be supported through contributions from Member States. Once military objectives had been achieved, the Council could consider the Organization’s provision of a logistic package for stabilization operations, which he called vital, with the deployment of a peacekeeping operation an option as well at that point.

Noting also letters from African Union and ECOWAS officials calling for urgent authorization of AFISMA, he stressed that the Secretary-General shared the sense of urgency about the horrendous crisis facing Mali, but underlined that the international response must be multidimensional and well-conceived, with additional planning needed before the deployment of any force.

Following Mr. Feltman’s briefing, officials of Mali, the African Union and ECOWAS took the floor. Traore Rokiatou Guikine, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mali, expressed hope for prompt Council action that would allow the immediate deployment of the international force to address the suffering of the population in the north and the growing terrorist threat.

“ Mali is on its way to becoming a breeding ground for terrorism,” she said, hoping for swift action to prevent catastrophic consequences for the region. “This calls for military intervention.”

The situation on the ground was worsening, she said, affirming that flogging, the amputation of limbs and stoning was taking place in the application of Sharia law by foreigners. Terrorists were also recruiting children to carry out Jihad. Islam would not condone this, she said. Beyond the forced displacement of people, the crisis had undermined access to education, halting classes for half a million children.

The best way to preserve human rights in the north was to quickly bring about conditions for the State to exercise its authority over all its territory, she said, noting that a lasting settlement entailed, among other things, holding credible elections. The road map existed, she said. Now was the time for the Council to act.

Antonio Tete, Observer of the African Union, affirmed that the deployment and operations of AFISMA would require strong United Nations support. Noting that experience in Darfur and Somalia had clearly shown the limitations and constraints of support provided on a voluntary basis, he echoed a call made by the Union’s Peace and Security Council on 13 November to establish a United Nations support package funded through assessed contributions.

“ Mali is at a crossroads,” he said. “Time is of essence. We need to act fast and to send a clear and strong message on the resolve of the international community and its support to the African-led efforts.”

Mindful of the complexity and multifaceted nature of the crisis, he called on the Security Council to take a number of steps, including extending full support to the strategic concept to address the crisis and authorizing the deployment of AFISMA. He also called on the Council to establish a United Nations support package for AFISMA and a trust fund to support the Malian defence and security forces.

Finally, Kadré Désiré Ouedraogo, President of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission, said that, given the dire, daily-deteriorating situation in northern Mali, efforts made by this Council and national, regional and international partners must be translated into concrete action. For ECOWAS, political dialogue must be paired with a military option that would help Mali regain its territorial integrity, dismantle terrorist networks and re-establish State authority countrywide.

Non-intervention in northern Mali was gravely aggravating the situation, he said. Based on a recommendation coming out of the ECOWAS Council of Ministers meeting this week, he urged the Council to consider the urgent need to adopt a resolution that authorized the deployment of the AFISMA under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter.

Outlining a strategy agreed upon by ECOWAS and the African Union, he said over the coming days and weeks a double approach was needed to address the crisis in the north, including dialogue and negotiation with armed groups and the use of force against terrorist groups. Deployment of AFISMA should occur before the end of the year, he stressed, adding that ECOWAS and the Union hoped that along with that urgently-needed action, a political and security plan to ensure fair elections, military reform and other initiatives to stabilize the situation would be put in place.

The meeting began at 10:12 a.m. and ended at 11:24 a.m.

Background

As it met today, the Security Council had before it the report of the Secretary-General on the situation in Mali (document S/2012/894), which covers the implementation of Council resolution 2071 (2012), in particular with regard to the provision of support by the United Nations to the Malian political process and to the planning for a potential deployment of an international military force to assist Malian armed forces in recovering the occupied regions in the north of the country. The report also summarizes major political and security developments in Mali since January 2012, outlines the United Nations multidimensional response to the crisis, presents the activities carried out by the Organization to implement the resolution and makes recommendations with regard to the way forward.

In the report, the Secretary-General says that a military operation may be required as a last resort to deal with the most hard-line extremist and criminal elements in the north. Before that stage is reached, however, the focus must be on initiating a broad-based and inclusive political dialogue aimed at forging national consensus around a road map for the transition and at addressing the long-standing grievances of the Tuaregs and other communities in the north. The threat of military intervention, however, in addition to some other developments, appears to have rendered some groups in the north more amenable to dialogue, an opportunity which the Malian authorities must take advantage of.

On the political track, he says internal divisions constitute the single greatest obstacle to progress and must be addressed urgently, affirming that the Malian authorities must coalesce around a common vision for the future of the country that enjoys the support of various constituencies. This includes creating the conditions and formulating a detailed and realistic timeline for the holding of elections. To augment previous assistance for that purpose, he signals his intension to strengthen the United Nations presence in Bamako in the coming days through the deployment of a senior United Nations official who will be responsible for interacting on a daily basis with key stakeholders.

He noted the proposal of the African Union for an African-led international support mission for Mali for an initial period of one year, comprising 3,300 personnel, to take all measures necessary, as appropriate, to assist the Malian authorities to recover the occupied regions in the north of Mali in order to restore the country’s unity and territorial integrity and reduce the threats posed by terrorist and affiliated groups and transnational organized crime. He said that fundamental questions on how the force would be led, sustained, trained, equipped and financed remained unanswered. Plans for both the international force and the Malian security and defence forces need to be developed further. They should include details on a harmonized operation with a clear division of functions, effective command and control and legitimate civilian authority oversight of the defence and security forces.

This planning, he says in the report, should also be synchronized with regional and international plans for counter-terrorism and border control and to counter criminal networks. Measures to mitigate the possible impact of a military operation on the extremely fragile humanitarian and human rights situation in northern Mali and the subregion must be incorporated into every stage and facet of the planning process. He adds that the effective implementation of the strategic operational framework will require significant and timely external support for training, equipment, logistics and funding for both the international force and the Malian defence and security forces.

Both the support mission and the Malian defence and security forces would be required to act in compliance with applicable international humanitarian and human rights law and in full respect of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Mali and neighbouring countries, he states. In that context, the deployment of a sufficient number of United Nations human rights observers should be mandated. Funding for the initial combat-related operations could be through voluntary or bilateral contributions. Once the objectives of the initial military operation have been achieved, the Council could consider the option of providing a United Nations logistics package to assist an international force during stabilization operations.

In the meantime, the United Nations could continue to support Malian authorities with planning and preparations for an intervention in the north, as well as in critical areas that will be required to accompany or follow any operation with regard to the extension of State authority. This, he says, would include rule of law and security institutions, mine action, promotion of national dialogue, regional cooperation, security sector reform, human rights and the initial demobilization, disarmament and reintegration of former combatants.

For information media • not an official record

Au sommaire

Crue du fleuve Niger: les sites de Séno sont en train d’être aménagés

A Tillabéry, des habitations inondées et d’autres menacées

A Diffa, baisse enregistrée des eaux de la Komadougou Yobé

By Jennifer Brookland

For kids in the impoverished and largely inaccessible region of Bui in North West Cameroon, hunger pains used to easily drown out the voices of schoolteachers. With no food available at school, students would spend breaks between classes foraging in neighboring farms or in the bush for wild fruits like guava or oranges. Most never returned to school after the long search, especially if they remained empty handed, and empty bellied.

Hungry and tired, students who could not find food often returned home to wait for their mothers to come back from the fields to cook dinner. Exhausted from the daily struggle, malnourished and unable to concentrate, some of these students never returned to school at all. Those who did often performed poorly in class, and on tests.

For the first time in their history, two schools in Bui were honored in 2010 with an Award of Academic Excellence, after 100 percent of their students passed the national examinations. The schools were project sites for the U.S. Department of Agriculture-funded Food for Education Program (FFE), implemented bythe nonprofit Counterpart International.

The schools’ head teachers and parent-teacher association president credited the schools’ star performance to the FFE program in remarks they made after the awards were announced.

Revealing the link between nutrition and education

Counterpart began implementing the program in 50 villages in 2009, working with parent-teacher associations, farmers and local leaders, as well as the Ministry of Education to ensure communities were involved in the program and in their children’s health and education.

The goal extended beyond providing food to increasing school enrollment, attendance and nutritional status of children— particularly girls.

During the four-year program, Counterpart expanded the program to 92 villages, providing nearly 34,000 children and families with more than 8.7 million meals and take-home rations.

It also developed a health and nutrition curriculum to teach pupils how to stay healthy, and worked with parent-teacher associations to build latrines, kitchens and storage areas.

The results were self-evident: Average attendance rates in project schools increased from 93.5 percent at the start of the project to 99.6 percent in the 2011-12 school year.

Kids who had stopped going to school came back in order to get the hot lunches, and some schools in the program saw enrollment jump more than 20 percent.

Up from the original two honorees, 85 percent of project schools had 100 percent pass rates on the national primary school exams for the 2011-2012 academic year—a remarkable achievement when less than 15 percent of schools in Cameroon send all of their students onward to secondary school.

A community effort that can continue

To ensure these innovative and integrated initiatives to keep kids healthy and in school would continue after the program finished, Counterpart worked with school communities to plant gardens and small farms so that schools would have supplemental food as well as income.

Teachers, students and parents received seeds and farm tools, and information on appropriate planting densities, use of organic manure, field and pest management and post-harvest storage.

"Our potato yields in the past hardly exceeded ten tons per hectare, but this year we recorded an amazing 20 tons per hectare," said Mr. Ndze Wilfred, head teacher of Meluf Catholic School. "We are very grateful to the Food for Education project for training us on modern cropping techniques, supporting us with improved seeds, farm tools and other inputs."

Counterpart involved 4,260 community members by teaching them about food preparation and storage, post-harvest management and developing school action plans.

Today, vegetables, beans, cocoyam, potatoes, maize and soybean are grown in each of the 92 project schools in Bui. Some schools are able to provide several meals per week to students from food harvested exclusively in the gardens, or bought with proceeds from their homegrown produce.

"We started our school feeding with produce from our gardens before we received commodities from USDA,” said Saka Angelina Yah, a member of one of the parent-teacher associations. “Now, we are quite certain that we will be able to continue providing food for the children in the schools even after the project ends, thanks to this school garden."

And engaging the whole community in learning allowed nearby farmers to increase the productivity and revenue of their own farms and gardens.

Success that leads to committment

The participatory approach and clear successes led some traditional leaders to donate land for school gardens, and several government councils have committed budgetary allocations for school feeding programs. Many other schools in the region indicated their interest in bringing Counterpart’s health and nutrition curriculum into their own programs.

Counterpart has encouraged the Government of Cameroon to prioritize school feeding in the basic education sector, and it seems inclined to do so.

“Your experience shall be replicated in other regions of the country,” said Alica Montheu, director of school canteens at the Ministry of Basic Education, after a project visit. “Other countries should visit your program because it is a satisfying inspiration for schools. We shall return to Yaoundé quite satisfied.”

I. Introduction

1. The present report is submitted pursuant to Security Council resolution 2071 (2012), adopted on 12 October 2012, in which the Council requested that I should report on the implementation of the resolution, in particular with regard to the provision of support by the United Nations to the Malian political process and to the planning for a potential deployment of an international military force to assist the Malian armed forces in recovering the occupied regions in the north of the country. The report summarizes major political and security developments in Mali since January 2012, outlines the United Nations multidimensional response to the crisis, presents the activities carried out by the Organization to implement the resolution and makes recommendations with regard to the way forward.

I. Introduction

1. Soumis en application de la résolution 2071 (2012) du Conseil de sécurité, le présent rapport fait le point de l’application de cette résolution, particulièrement en ce qui concerne l’appui apporté par l’ONU au processus politique malien et l’établissement de plans pour le déploiement éventuel d’une force militaire internationale chargée d’aider les forces armées maliennes à reprendre les régions occupées du nord du pays. On y trouve un récapitulatif des principaux événements survenus au Mali, depuis janvier 2012, sur le plan politique et sur celui de la sécurité, un aperçu des interventions multidimensionnelles faites par l’ONU face à la crise, un exposé des activités menées par l’Organisation aux fins de la mise en oeuvre de la résolution, et des recommandations sur les orientations à suivre.

12/06/2012 01:10 GMT

NEW YORK (Nations unies), 5 déc 2012 (AFP) - Le Conseil de sécurité des Nations unies a décrété mercredi des sanctions contre le groupe islamiste Mujao (Mouvement pour l'unicité et le Jihad en Afrique de l'Ouest), un des groupes qui contrôlent le nord du Mali.

Mujao a été ajouté à la liste noire du Comité des sanctions de l'ONU en tant que groupe lié à Al-Qaïda. Les pays membres de l'ONU ont l'obligation d'imposer aux entités et individus placés sur cette liste un gel des avoirs, un embargo sur les armes et une interdiction de voyager.

Le Conseil de sécurité avait menacé ces groupes de sanctions ciblées s'ils ne se dissociaient pas du terrorisme. Al-Qaïda au Maghreb islamique (Aqmi), dont Mujao est issu, figure déjà sur la liste noire de l'ONU.

Dans ses attendus, le Comité des sanctions souligne que le Mujao "travaille en collaboration avec Aqmi dont il tire ses capacités opérationnelles (et) partage les objectifs d'Aqmi".

"Les dirigeants du Mujao sont connus pour être des trafiquants de drogue impliqués dans le trafic au Sahel et dans le sud de l'Algérie", ajoute le Comité. Il précise que le groupe est "lourdement armé" et a revendiqué en 2011 et 2012 une série d'attaques contre des gendarmeries en Algérie et d'enlèvements de travailleurs humanitaires et de diplomates algériens.

Deux autres groupes armés actifs dans le nord du Mali, les islamistes de Ansar Dine et le mouvement sécessionniste touareg MNLA (Mouvement national de libération de l'Azawad), ont entamé mardi à Ouagadougou des premières négociations directes avec le gouvernement malien.

Le Conseil de sécurité doit se prononcer prochainement sur une opération internationale pour chasser les islamistes du Nord-Mali, sur la base d'une résolution préparée par la France, à la demande de Bamako et de la Cédéao (Communauté économique des Etats d'Afrique de l'Ouest).

Le Mouvement pour l'unicité et le jihad en Afrique de l'Ouest est devenu l'un des maîtres du nord du Mali et s'est illustré par des prises d'otages. Il a notamment revendiqué fin novembre le rapt d'un Français dans l'ouest du Mali. Cet enlèvement a porté à treize le nombre d'otages étrangers détenus par Aqmi et le Mujao, dont sept Français.

Fondé par le Mauritanien Hamada Ould Mohamed Kheirou, alias Abou Ghoum-Ghoum, Mujao s'est emparé il y a huit mois de la partie nord du Mali aux côtés d'Aqmi et d'Ansar Dine, adeptes d'une application rigoriste de la charia (loi islamique) dans tout le Mali.

Depuis lors, sa place forte est la grande ville de Gao (nord-est), dont il s'est rendu totalement maître en évinçant le MNLA à l'issue de violents combats fin juin.

avz/lor

© 1994-2012 Agence France-Presse

By Helen Blakesley

I’m very big on atmospheres. I’m one of those people who walk into a room and can just tell whether its inhabitants are feeling generally perky…or whether they’ve just had a blazing row.

Wherever I travel for Catholic Relief Services, around West and Central Africa, I subconsciously seem to work out whether I like the “feel” of a place. So when I arrived in Mali last week, my antennae were twitching.

Mali, a country nestled in the middle of West Africa, is a nation divided in two right now. Since a military coup destabilized the political landscape earlier this year, various rebel groups occupy (and are vying for control of) the north – an area the size of Texas. Reports of atrocities against the people living there abound – killings, maiming, rape, recruiting of children as soldiers. For all these reasons, over two hundred thousand people have left their homes and fled to neighboring countries. Another two hundred thousand have moved south, many to the capital, Bamako. These are some of the people CRS is helping and these were the people I had come to meet.

Before I arrived, I’d been told that tourism to Mali had all but dried up now. What was once a steady stream of visitors to this historic country so rich in culture and music, had stymied to a trickle. Even CRS had changed policy so that international staff couldn’t bring their kids anymore, if posted there.

So I wasn’t expecting the vibe. The great, friendly, relaxed feeling I got from Bamako – a leafy city sprawling from the banks of the River Niger. Sure there was urban bustle, but there was a friendliness, a welcoming cheer just under the surface. Can’t be an easy feat, when folks must be worried about what’s happening elsewhere in their country and about what the future holds.

With the thermometer nearly a full 20 degrees (F) more than in my home-away-from-home of Dakar, Senegal, I’m taken by a CRS team to visit some ‘IDPs’ – the catchy acronym for those who’ve fled within their own country: Internally Displaced People. In Bamako, some are staying with relatives, others with host families and some are renting rooms – if they can afford it.

As always, before meeting with people who’ve been through something traumatic, I ask myself “Will they want to speak with me?” and remind myself to go gently with them.

Hawa Toure, left, sits with other members of her family, who are taking refuge at their relative’s home in Bamako, Mali. Photo by Helen Blakesley/CRS

We visit the Touré family at their home in the Attbougou neighborhood. Already a family of twenty-four, they welcomed thirty-two more relatives who escaped the Gao region of the North. Some made other arrangements or travelled elsewhere, but right now there are fourteen people sharing one living room, two bedrooms and one bathroom.

I sit with Moctar, the head of the household, a retired customs officer with cropped white hair and a youthful passion when he talks. “We’re tired, so tired,” he confides. “Sometimes I think we’re done for!”

I chat with family members who made the journey from Gao. I’m struck by their openness, their willingness to tell me their story. A little cat comes over for an inquisitive look. There’s laughter. Moctar’s daughter Fatimata tells me “when you’re with your family, there is always joy”. But the tension is also there, the worry, the fatigue. Twelve-year-old Aminata’s eyes brim with tears as she admits, “I miss my friends”.

CRS is trying to help ease some of the worry with cash distributions each month. Targeting the poorest and most vulnerable, CRS gives around sixteen dollars per person to help cover basic food needs or rent costs.

At the next home I visit, the two women who are head of the household (their husbands stayed behind in Gao to look after the family shop) are using that money for rent. They wanted to take the pressure off their host family, so have found three rooms for themselves and their fifteen children.

“We’re thankful to CRS,” Mariam Dembélé tells me. “You’ve given us our dignity back”. As her sister-in-law Fanta Poudiougou explains how older members of the family couldn’t or wouldn’t leave home to come with them to Bamako, both women fill up with tears. I can’t help following suit. They’re afraid what the planned military intervention in the north will mean for the civilians left up there. But they also can’t see another way to liberate their country from the extremist rebel groups.

During my stay in Mali, over three thousand people gathered in Bamako for a peaceful march against religious extremism. They wanted the world to know that the rebels in the north were not representative of their country – some indeed don’t even come from Mali, but are there to take advantage of a fragile state. Also during my stay, another European was kidnapped. A French man in his 60’s who was in the west of the country – not even near the occupied territory. These are complex and concerning times for Mali.

As I boarded the shuttle bus at the airport that was to take me to my return flight home, I saw a sight which struck me as symbolic. The guy checking us for weapons was holding his prayer beads in one hand, the metal detector in the other. A visual embodiment of the fact that religion and security can co-exist. I would love to think it is a good omen for the path Mali will tread.

Helen Blakesley is CRS’ regional information officer for West and Central Africa. She is based in Dakar, Senegal.

Testimony
Johnnie Carson
Assistant Secretary, Bureau of African Affairs
As Prepared
Testimony Before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Subcommittee on African Affairs
Washington, DC
December 5, 2012

(extract)

4 . Humanitarian crisis

The human toll of these overlapping challenges has been enormous. Since the start of the fighting in northern Mali, more than 410,000 people have become refugees or internally displaced. Of these, nearly 200,000 people are displaced within Mali, and more than 210,000 Malian refugees have fled to Niger, Mauritania, and Burkina Faso. Algeria also hosts Malian refugees.

In an effort to mitigate the effects of the complex humanitarian crisis in the Sahel, we are providing humanitarian and food assistance to those displaced by the conflict in northern Mali and those affected by the region’s food crisis. For 2012 to date, the U.S. Government provided more than $445 million in assistance to the Sahel region, $119 million of which was in support of emergency needs within Mali and among refugee populations outside of Mali. We support the work of the United Nations Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Sahel and his efforts to ensure access to affected populations and coordinate the humanitarian response, including contingency planning for possible new displacements as a result of a military intervention. We hold that the humanitarian response should remain civilian-led in order to ensure the neutral and impartial character of humanitarian operations.

Abstract

Agriculture in Tanzania accounts for 28 percent of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employs 80 percent of its labor force. The sector is also an important source of export revenues. The data and findings presented in this report provide a summary of the performance of the agriculture sector in Tanzania using a set of indicators covering six areas. These are: 1) access to and availability of certified seed; 2) availability of and access to fertilizer; 3) access to farm machinery, particularly tractor hire services for land preparation; 4) access to agricultural and agro-enterprise finance; 5) the cost and efficiency of transporting agricultural commodities; and 6) measures of policy certainty and uncertainty as perceived by private investors and the effects these have on the enabling environment for producers and agribusinesses. The Agribusiness Indicators (ABI) team conducted interviews with Government agencies, private firms (fertilizer importers, seed companies, tractor importers and distributors, transporters), commercial banks, farmer-based organizations, donors, and Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs). The ABI program is pilot testing an initial set of indicators on the ease (or difficulty) of operating agribusinesses in African countries. The indicators are used to assess whether the countries have an enabling environment that is conducive to agribusiness investment, competitiveness, and ultimately agriculture-led growth.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Firmer production estimates for 2012 confirm tightening wheat and maize supplies while the outlook for rice remains positive. In spite of a contraction in overall cereal utilization in 2012/13, the world cereal stock-to-use ratio is projected to decline by 2 percentage points from the previous season.

• International prices of all major cereals, except rice, remain well above last year. For wheat and maize, while prices have stabilized in recent weeks, unfavourable weather for 2013 crops in several important regions is a concern.

• Aggregate cereal production of LIFDCs in 2012 has been revised upwards following a recovery in Western Africa and increased output in the Far East. Consequently, reduced imports are expected in 2012/13.

• In the Great Lakes, the humanitarian crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo worsened following the recent escalation of conflict. An estimated 6.3 million people require emergency assistance, about 2 million more than a year ago.

• In Western Africa, the overall food security situation has started to improve in the Sahel following an above-average 2012 cereal harvest. However, a large number of people are still affected by civil strife and the impact of last year’s drought.

• In Eastern Africa, access to food has started to improve with the arrival of the newly harvested crops and the resulting drop in prices. However, millions of people continue to face food difficulties.

• In Southern Africa, poor 2012 cereal harvests in some areas led to a deterioration of food security. Planting of the 2013 crop began in November under generally favourable weather conditions.

• In the Far East, the 2012 aggregate cereal harvest is estimated at a record level. However, lower production is expected in India, Nepal and the Republic of Korea mainly due to dry spells and localized floods.

• In the Near East, the deteriorating food security situation continues to be a major concern in the Syrian Arab Republic as a result of civil conflict and in Yemen due to security problems.

• In CIS countries, the 2012 cereal production significantly dropped from the previous year’s record level. Consequently, the price of wheat flour in some wheat import-dependent countries has reached record levels.

• In Central America and the Caribbean, prospects for 2012 in Haiti point to a significant drop in aggregate cereal production by 35 percent due to a dry spell earlier in the season and subsequent heavy rains and floods.

• In South America, prospects for 2012 wheat production have deteriorated in Argentina due to a decrease in area planted and in Brazil due to dry weather conditions. However, the outlook for the 2013 maize crop is favourable.

Kristalina Georgieva, European Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response

High-level Meeting on AGIR-Sahel, West Africa Week / Ouagadougou

6 December 2012

Mr Chairman, Prime Minister, Commissioners of ECOWAS and the UEMOA, Ministers, Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen.

Let me first of all thank the government of Burkina Faso for hosting this important meeting. We appreciate your hospitality all the more since we know it is election time in your country. Thank you for having nonetheless made this gathering possible in the context of West Africa Week. And let me thank the Sahel and West Africa Club, and its President, Francois-Xavier De Donnea, for leading us into the subject so expertly.

It is a great pleasure for me to be with you today in Ouagadougou. It is a great pleasure for me personally to return to your region (earlier this year I was able to visit Niger and Chad). But it is also important for me to be here given the importance we as the European Union attach to partnership with this region in the context of our Sahel Strategy. And indeed given the importance the international community as a whole attaches to working with the Sahel, of which we saw proof not least at the UN General Assembly last September, with the high-level Sahel summit which I was able to participate in.

But we are here today for a good and specific reason. The recurrent food and nutrition crises that have hit the Sahel with increasing frequency in recent years. The underlying drivers of those crises, and climate change in particular, are not going away. Quite the contrary. The amplitude of climate change in the coming years looks likely to surpass our most extreme predictions. And all the evidence suggests the kind of crises you have seen in recent years will be getting more frequent and more intense. The result, each and every time, is not only immense human suffering, but also major setbacks to development.

So there really is only one way forward, and that is of course to strengthen the coping capacity of those who are most vulnerable to these crises. That is exactly why we collectively decided to start AGIR-Sahel earlier this year. And it is great to see this alliance taking another step towards fruition. Many of you participated in the meeting we hosted in Brussels last June. Since then, a lot of work has taken place to take forward the resilience agenda in the Sahel – by the regional organizations, by governments in your region, by the producer organizations and civil society, by the Senior Expert Group. Thanks to all that work, we now have much greater clarity on where this alliance is heading.

But let me step back briefly to look at why we collectively brought AGIR into being in the first place. This year, all of us together – the national governments, the regional organizations, the UN, NGOs, and donors – managed to avoid another massive humanitarian crisis in the Sahel. Over 18 m people were affected by food and nutrition insecurity. Over 800,000 acutely malnourished children under five have received treatment for severe acute malnutrition. Half of them would probably have died without specialized care. So a catastrophe was averted. Moreover, the rains have been good this year. So the prospect for the harvests will be good.

That is the good news. The bad news is that many have lost their livelihoods. Many of the poorest families, with limited access to land and other assets, have incurred great debt levels to survive. They depend on the markets to obtain food, and have to use much of their income to buy insufficient quantities of foodstuffs. So their resilience is at a very low level. With food prices high, they may once again fall into crisis next year. The early signals for 2013 are actually quite worrying. Even if the harvests have been good, there could be a serious issue with access to food. So there is real urgency to the issue.

And this of course is where AGIR comes in. To address the root causes behind these crises. To lift the most vulnerable people out of recurrent crises. To lift them out of dependence on emergency aid.

That applies in particular to the poorest 20% of the population, who regularly make up 80% of those in need of emergency assistance, any year, ‘good’ or ‘bad’. Those who are most regularly subject to malnutrition. And over the past years in the Sahel, we have collectively identified ways of building their resilience. By ensuring that development also reaches these very vulnerable groups. By targeting the ultra-poor with social transfers, in the form of cash, and in the form of nutrition supplements for young children and for pregnant and breastfeeding women. Or by exempting children under 5 as well as pregnant and breast-feeding women from health user fees. Research done right here in Burkina Faso confirms that this is effective.

But we also need to look at education. At access to education for girls in particular. At delivering adequate family planning services. There have been promising trials in Niger in particular.

In the long term, development is the most effective resilience-builder for the most vulnerable. And that takes time. But the basic message from Burkina and Niger and other countries in the Sahel is: you can already do resilience today. And it can have a very rapid impact.

How can AGIR make a difference towards this ambitious agenda? As a next step after today, it will be good to see agreement on the specific objectives, and a shared understanding of the gaps – with a finalized Road Map and National Resilience Strategies. We should also try to agree on clear targets. That should be possible within the next 12 months. Within five years, it should be possible to see productive seasonal safety nets in place at the national level, to catch the most vulnerable before they fall into crisis in the hungry period. Also within five years, we should work towards an increase in food production substantially – and towards streamlining market mechanisms in the individual countries and in the West Africa Region to reduce distortion and manipulation.

All of this will require decisive action by national governments. There are some remarkable schemes already in place. I am thinking of Niger's 3N Initiative. And I look forward to seeing during my visit how you are building resilience here in Burkina. At the same time, the Sahel is characterized by a high degree of regional interdependence. Hence the regional organizations have a key role to play in support of national efforts.

Where do donors come in? Many of us are already supporting resilience in the Sahel. We will seek to map that support – not least so as to identify possible gaps. Speaking for the EU, I can tell you that we are now stepping up to the plate. Over the coming three years, we are putting around € 500 m into resilience-building in the Sahel. Moreover, food and nutrition security, including resilience, is emerging as a central theme in the programming for the next European Development Fund in your region. It is too early to put specific figures to this – but we are now starting to see the objectives of AGIR reflected in very concrete terms in our development programming for the Sahel. We also recently adopted a new EU policy on support for resilience. You should hold us to this commitment. AGIR is not an empty alliance. It is about a new partnership in support of your efforts and responsibility to address the structural causes and resilience challenges. We need to stay this course together for the long haul if we are to have an impact. Just as Niger has the "3N", so AGIR is about the "3 As": Awareness, Advocacy, and Action. We have the awareness. We are right now doing the advocacy. We need to move onto the action.

Of course, while we will hopefully make progress on building resilience, we will have to continue to address urgent needs. Resilience will not come at the expense of emergency response where it is needed. And the crisis in Mali of course risks exacerbating existing vulnerabilities. As humanitarian Commissioner, I will stay on the ball on this.

Mr Chairman, I look forward to the adoption by this meeting of a strong political Declaration. And I look forward to continuing to work with all of you on that basis to turn resilience for the most vulnerable people of the Sahel into a reality. Thank you very much.

An earthquake with magnitude 5.6 has hit South Khorasan province in Iran, killing at least eight people and injuring 12. As of 6 December, no further information on the impact is available. Typhoon Bopha has made landfall in the southern Philippines on 4 December, carrying winds of up to 160 kilometres an hour. More than 294,000 people have been affected in seven provinces, according to Government estimates. Severe rains have affected at least 6,500 people in Panama, prompting the Government of Panama to declare a state of emergency for the regions of La Chorrera, Capira and Colón.

The situation in Syria continues to deteriorate, with heavy fighting in Damascus following a major operation launched by the Government to prevent rebels from advancing on the capital.

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