Au menu:

· Tchad : ouverture d'un sommet sur le développement durable, la pauvreté et le climat (AFP, 11/05/13)

· Le Tchadien Djimet Adoum nommé secrétaire exécutif du CILSS (AFP, 13/05/13)

· Canada provides emergency assistance for refugees and displaced in eastern Chad (CIDA, 13/05/13)

· Nigeria declares 'massive' military campaign on borders (BBC, 15/05/13)

· Greening: We must break the cycle of food shortages in Western Africa (DFID, 15/05/13)

· UN envoy says CAR in 'state of anarchy' (Al Jazeera, 16/05/13)

Media Note, Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC
May 16, 2013

Emergency relief for the most vulnerable people in Mali and the West African Sahel region

The UK will help to prevent desperate food shortages and make Mali and the West African Sahel more stable and secure, International Development Secretary Justine Greening has announced.

It is hot and the midday sun scorches the sand. Mile after mile of travel and there is not a body of water to be seen. Animal carcasses rot on the side of the road. Yet amid this harsh desert climate, among a cluster of communities, tomatoes, onions and watermelon grow.

This is Mauritania, a west African country home to three million people, more than one third of whom are hungry. The Brakna region, in the south, has the highest malnutrition rates in the country, particularly among children under the age of five.

Nouakchott, Mauritania – Tadateru Konoé, the president of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), has undertaken his first mission to Mauritania where he witnessed first-hand the work the Mauritanian Red Crescent is doing to combat food insecurity in the region. The National Society has developed a range of solutions which are having a significant impact on vulnerable communities, including those living in remote areas of the country.

04/24/2013 15:04 GMT

NOUAKCHOTT, 24 avr 2013 (AFP) - Vingt millions de personnes vivant au Sahel, dont 4,3 millions au Mali, connaissent une situation alimentaire "grave", a affirmé mercredi à Nouakchott le président de la Fédération internationale des sociétés de la Croix-Rouge et du Croissant-Rouge (FICR).

"Quelque 20 millions de personnes dans tout le Sahel font encore face à des pénuries (alimentaires) graves" a dit le président de la FICR, le Japonais Tadateru Konoé, à l'ouverture d'une réunion du Groupe Sahel plus.

GENÈVE, 19 avril (HCR) – Le HCR a renouvelé vendredi un appel de fonds de plusieurs millions de dollars pour aider à répondre aux besoins de dizaines de milliers de réfugiés et près de 300 000 déplacés maliens.

NEW YORK, 19 April 2013 – One and a half million children would not have died in 2011 had they been immunized, according to UNICEF at the start of World Immunization Week. But one in five children is not being reached with vital vaccines due to social or geographical exclusion, lack of resources, weak health systems or conflicts such as those raging today in Syria and parts of West Africa.

16 April 2013 – Stretching from Dakar to Djibouti, a United Nations-backed programme dubbed the ‘Great Green Wall’ brings together 11 countries to plant trees across Africa to literally hold back the Sahara desert with a swathe of greenery, lessen the effects of desertification and improve the lives and livelihoods of communities.