Representatives from Adielhoc and Tinzawaten have called on some of their partners in France to inform them on the situation of the “famine alert” in Northern Mali, particularly the CCFD.
Here is the opinion of the AZHAR NGO in Kidal :
While not wanting to over dramatise the situation as described by some representatives (Adielhoc, Tinzawaten) to their partners, it is all too real.
The last rainy season showed a shortfall in the Kidal Region and in Northern Mali as a whole. The consequences could be serious indeed for nomadic breeders who become very vulnerable when they lose their “capital livestock”. Everyone knows that : the breeders themselves, the local representatives, government technical services, development programs for the region, local NGO’s. Unfortunately, as always in such cases, advance thinking did not prevail. Maybe, once again, we need to see contingents of disaster victims roaming from one village to the next before calls for help are sent !
Animals are presently sick and die every day throughout the region ; wadis are bare (no biomass) and littered with cadavers (losses are estimated at over 40 per cent four months before the rainy season as compared to the normal situation). Having lost their animals, some families of nomadic breeders are starting to move to villages which have become true “squalor parks”. Aren’t the nomadic breeders of this area victims of the drought curse for which they can never be prepared ?
On the markets (Kidal, Adielhoc, Tessalit) the price of animals, for those still well enough to be sold, has plummeted. For example, the price of a sheep has fallen from 30 000 CFA (46 Euros) at the end of the rainy season, to 5 000 CFA (8 Euros) today.
The emergency measures of the government’ “short term strategy” is that 1 000 tons of cattle feed (for 901 962 head of cattle in 2009 , i.e. 0,001 kg per head) have been made available to the communes of the Kidal region. These must buy the feed, transport it at their own cost from Kidal, and then sell it to the breeders. As an example, the price of a 50 kg sack is 6 000 CFA (9 Euros). Let’s just add that revenues are so low that breeders cannot buy this essential commodity to save what can still be saved.
Furthermore, the actions of the technical and financial partners appear to be very limited, maybe because of the lack of objective information. We think there is a risk that we might be faced with a dramatic situation with delayed actions and, in the best of cases, act as “doctors after death” Alas ! this has already happened during passed droughts (1973, 1984).
The current drought is ravaging the area on a background of insecurity, and the technical and financial partners cannot yet travel in the field to assess the situation of this “rampant drama”. However, there is a possible alternative at this level involving NGOs and empowering them, in a synergy with local authorities when implementing possible programs for the community.
* /Rousmane Ag ASSILAKEN/*
*/Directeur Exécutif/*
*/ONG AZHAR/ *
BP :18
Email : ong_azhar2003@yahoo.fr / ong.azhar@gmail.com
Kidal
Mali
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