FAMINE AND DROUGHT IN THE KIDAL REGION, NORTHERN MALI

FAMINE AND DROUGHT IN THE KIDAL REGION, NORTHERN MALI

INTERMEDIARY REPORT / FUTURE PROGNOSIS

Date: 2nd May 2010

REPORT

Since April, we have been informing you of the catastrophic consequences of the drought on the populations of northern Mali and Niger. We have also been telling you about the difficulties of raising awareness amongst the politicians, the national media and an often ill-informed civilian population…

The situation on the ground has evolved rapidly over the past two weeks:

1) International institutions, NGOs, African governments and other foreign powers have been making funds available to buy and transport animal feed and cereals.

Here are a few examples in the Kidal region and its four sub-divisions (Kidal, Tessalit, Abeibara and Tin-Essako): 160 tons of grain were distributed last week in Tessalit and 120 tons in Aguelhoc. The UN FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation) was been distributing food intended for women and children to rural desert schools. Senegal and Burkina-Faso have been sending food supplies and more…

2) AT A POLITICAL LEVEL, many elected representatives from the affected regions have been raising awareness about the local situation amongst politicians, both in Bamako and in France.

3) AID MISSIONS ARE INCREASING, and INFORMATION is spreading. As far as the MEDIA are concerned, not a day passes without new bulletins of help for the region.

  In this videoclip, a herdsman from Tassick (Kidal) talks about the state of the water supply, of livestock and of the other herdsmen: http://www.tamasheq.net/secheresse-...

  On the 8th April, a delegation of elected representatives from the Kidal region met the French parliament deputy Jean Lassalle at the National Assembly in Paris to inform him of the dramatic situation in which the population and the nomadic herdsmen in the North of Mali find themselves at this moment. It’s very urgent: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xd...

  Click here to find another dozen articles on the situation: http://www.temoust.org/special-sech...

FUTURE PROGNOSIS

1) Having analysed the situation on the ground and spoken to various local partners, it seems advisable in our view to wait for the rains before starting to REBUILD THE HERDS OF THE WORSE AFFECTED FAMILIES, so that they can restart their animal husbandry on solid foundations.

2) We are just beginning to receive donations from France, USA, UK, Switzerland, Italy and Spain, and we must continue our awareness raising campaign using all possible networks.

WHO ARE WE? WHAT ARE WE DOING? WHERE?

1) WHO?

We are a group of local civilian Touareg activists, living in the region, who have been very involved for a long time in humanitarian work under the leadership of Rousmane AG ASSILAKEN. Rousmane is a local community leader, who works with the village councils of Tessalit, Agelhoc and Tintaghen and who is unanimously respected as a man of trust and probity.

The members of the music group TINARIWEN, who were all born in the affected region and in many cases still live there, have given their enthusiastic support to this project.

2) WHERE?

All donations received will serve the needs of the people living in the west of the Kidal region, notably in the villages of TESSALIT, AGELHOC and also TIMTEGHENE, a particularly isolated settlement reachable only over 150km of sand and dunes from Agelhoc. In this western part of the region, there are few local initiatives, and the people running this project who are natives of Tessalit are particularly keen to help this area. By contrast, in Kidal and its immediate vicinity, there are many NGOs who have already been active for a long time.

3) HOW?

Attaher AG IKNANE, a Touareg expert in engineering and local development, and Jacqueline DUPUIS, a geographer and webmaster of Temoust.org, are collecting donations and coordinating the funds in France using a special bank account. Donations are being received by bank transfer, check and Paypal. In agreement with Rousmane AG ASSILAKEN and the mayors of Tessalit, Agelhoc and Tintaghen, the money collected will be transferred directly to an account managed by Rousmane AG ASSILAKEN and used according to the needs of the worse affected families. These local partners know the region and the families that live there sufficiently well to target the funds at the most needy.

CONCLUSION:

We aren’t an NGO. We are local activists, who are well aware of the dire situation in the region. Faced with the terrible destruction wrought by this drought on the natural environment in which the Touareg live, we felt the need to act urgently and directly, without waiting to set up any institutional framework, which might have taken weeks and weeks. Some have seen fault in this and have alluded to the fact that only properly instituted associations and NGOs can benefit from Gift Aid and other Tax incentives offered by many national European governments to charitable fundraisers. But we felt that the most urgent issue was to make funds available to people affected right now by this crisis.

In all events, we can honestly say that the situation is still very dire. No one knows if the long awaited rains will arrive when they are due, in a month or so. If they don’t, the catastrophe will intensify a hundred fold. If so, we will still be here, together will all those who care about the region and want to help, in strong and generous numbers.

Many thanks for your support and understanding.

Rousmane AG ASSILAKEN TINARIWEN Attaher AG IKNANE Jacqueline DUPUIS