Key messages
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The populations of northern Mali are exhausted by two consecutive food crisis and five years of conflict between the army, separatists groups and radical Islamist militias. Despite the signature of a peace agreement in June 2015, the deal has not yet provided peace dividends, the security situation is volatile and humanitarian needs are increasing again due to intercommunity clashes in Central Mali and as a consequence of the agropastoral situation in the north.
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Insecurity impedes access to basic services in the north and the centre, and makes 3.7 million people dependant on international humanitarian aid (HRP), while less than half should be reached in 2017.
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Humanitarian space is fragile. In a context of asymmetric attacks continuously targeting national and international forces, principled humanitarian assistance must be clearly distinct from the political stabilization agenda and the lines between the two must be not blurred.
Movement restrictions imposed in the centre limit the ability to deliver assistance and for beneficiaries to access it. -
Conditions are not favourable for a safe and durable return of refugees and internally displaced people to large parts of the north.
Access to basic social services such as health care, nutrition, water and education remains limited and even a growing major concern in some regions. -
Acute malnutrition levels exceed emergency thresholds in certain areas, while food insecurity looms for the poorest and most vulnerable families, especially in northern Mali. Over the 2017 lean season, about to start, 3.8 million people are foreseen to be food insecure, of which 600 000 need emergency food assistance.