The military operation currently being carried out by the Malian and French armed forces to retake control of northern Mali has led to a number of rapid changes in the humanitarian situation. Civilians need to be protected from the fighting and the weapons that have flooded into the country. Humanitarian organisations must have access to displaced people without further delay.
Civilians exposed to weapons and explosive remnants of war
Over the last twelve months and since the start of the conflict, which has seen Mali cut in two, the country has been flooded with weapons. These pose an imminent threat to civilians, who are frequently victims of stray bullets as well as landmines and other explosive devices left behind by combatants. Faced with this emergency, Handicap International decided to resume its risk education activities for civilians on 16th January.
According to Marc Vaernewyck, Handicap International’s Programme Director in Mali: “We need to act now before people currently displaced in the interior of Mali return to their homes and find themselves confronted, on their homeward journey, with dangerous weapons and explosive devices. We have mobilised all of our teams, who are aware of the urgent need to resume our risk education activities which had been running since April last year.”
According to Sylvie Bouko, Handicap International’s specialist in reducing armed violence, the nature of the conflict in Mali poses a particular threat to the population: “A lot of weapons have entered the country, particularly because they were available locally after the Libyan revolution. The groups of fighters who use them have stashed some of the weapons away, sometimes simply in earthenware jars or in rivers, and they often just dump them on the move. The current fighting will probably make this situation worse and we’re afraid of seeing a significant increase in the number of wounded civilians coming across these weapons over the coming weeks and months.”
As well as small arms, landmines and explosive remnants of war also pose a major threat to civilians. Since the conflict in Mali began in early 2012, more than 50 civilians have been injured by landmines or explosive remnants of war (such as grenades and unexploded shells), including 31 children.
“We have been performing prevention actions since October. We are training people to pass on our safety messages to their communities. The basic rule is 'Don’t touch suspicious objects, keep your distance, mark the potentially dangerous area, and give the alert'. We teach them to spot and alert us to the presence of dangerous devices. It’s vital to secure the areas where people are going to return and set up their homes, and to prepare for mine clearance operations which we’re hoping to start as soon as possible.”
Assessing needs and providing support to the population
It is currently difficult to know exactly how the fighting currently raging in northern Mali is impacting on the population. This is why Handicap International is setting up operations to assess the needs of displaced people living around the city of Mopti. According to Grégory Doucet, West Africa Desk Officer: “These assessments are really important because they’ll help us give an appropriate response. We will distribute humanitarian aid according to people’s needs and do our best to ensure that the most vulnerable people receive adequate protection.”
The resumption of our operations, suspended between 9th and 15th January, should allow us to provide support to displaced people, but for Grégory Doucet, this does not go far enough: “What really worries us is the situation facing people who will not be among the displaced population who have taken shelter around Mopti - people who have stayed in the north, around Timbuktu in particular, because they were too weak to take to the road. It is still too dangerous for us to resume our humanitarian operations in these areas, and the situation facing these most vulnerable people is very worrying.”
Nearly 230,000 displaced people
Nearly 230,000 people are currently displaced inside Mali. They have fled their homes in search of safety and now find themselves without any means of earning a livelihood. They will depend entirely on humanitarian aid until they are able to return to home.
If the fighting continues it may lead to further population displacements to neighbouring countries such as Burkina Faso and Niger. Handicap International, which is already present in both of these countries, is already preparing for this eventuality in order to respond as quickly as possible to any future crisis.
