BAMAKO – Recent video and stills photos highlight the plight of conflict-affected people in Mali, West Africa, where the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is working to provide food and fight malnutrition.
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.
The situation has made it challenging for humanitarian organizations to maintain full access to the North of the country. Video images show people lining up to receive food assistance in the North, displaced people living in a tented camp near the central town of Mopti and displaced children eating school meals.
For recent video images from Mali and a shotlist, please click on this link: http://www.yousendit.com/download/WUJZY05xU1BFd2UwYjhUQw
For recent photo images from Timbuktu region, click on this link (please credit Omar Barry/Islamic Relief): https://www.yousendit.com/download/WUJiYUlpVnNCSnB2TzhUQw
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. 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 (IDPs).
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.
WFP is especially concerned about preventing malnutrition in the North and launched a programme in September to boost nutrition among children aged six months to five years old. So far, more than 30,000 children have been provided with specialized, ready-to-use, nutrition products such as Plumpy’sup and around 10,000 pregnant women and nursing mothers have also received specialized nutrition support.
WFP also runs an Emergency School Feeding programme, responding to increased numbers of children from displaced families in primary schools. Children receive breakfast as well as their regular school lunch.
Interviews with WFP staff in the region can be arranged by contacting: Daouda Guirou, WFP/Bamako, Mob. +223 20794577, daouda.guirou@wfp.org Malek Triki, WFP/Dakar, Mob. +221 77 6375964, malek.triki@wfp.org