Mauritania

DSG/SM/1169

Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, at the Sahel Alliance side event “Working Hand in Hand with the United Nations to Invest for the Future of Sahel”, in New York today:

As Deputy Secretary-General, and as someone with very close ties to the Sahel, I very much welcome the initiative of the European Union and the Group of Five for the Sahel countries to bring us together today.

Funding required: $25.31 B

Funding received: $2.97 B

Funding percentage: 11.8%

People in need: 131.1 M

People to receive aid: 95.1 M

Countries affected: 36

As at 31 March 2018, UN-coordinated Humanitarian Response Plans (HRP) and the Syria 3RP Regional Refugee and Resilience Plan require US$25.31 billion to meet the humanitarian needs of 131.1 million crisis-affected people in 26 countries.

OVERVIEW

The WHO Health Emergencies Programme is currently monitoring 61 events in the region. This week’s edition covers key ongoing events, including:

Cholera in Congo
Cholera in Zimbabwe
Lassa fever in Nigeria
Humanitarian crisis in South Sudan
Humanitarian crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

DURING THE REPORTING PERIOD:

484 STRANDED MIGRANTS RETURNED HOME VIA CHARTERED FLIGHTS

102 STRANDED MIGRANTS RETURNED HOME VIA COMMERCIAL FLIGHTS

INTRODUCTION: L’OIM travaille avec les autorités nationales, locales et des partenaires locaux, afin de mieux comprendre et connaître les mouvements migratoires à travers l’Afrique de l’Ouest et du Centre. Le suivi des flux de population (FMP) est une activité qui permet de quantifier et de qualifier les flux, les profils des migrants, les tendances et les routes migratoires sur un point d’entrée, de transit ou de sortie donné.

Le contexte de déplacement au Mali reste complexe et fluide. Des mouvements de personnes déplacées résidant actuellement dans les régions du sud vers les régions du nord continuent d'être signalés. Alors que certains ont indiqué être retournés définitivement, d'autres déplacés expliquent faire des allers-retours entre le lieu de déplacement et le lieu d'origine.

In Numbers

538,400 projected severely food-insecure persons (IPC Phase 3 & 4) (source: Cadre Harmonisé projections for 2018 lean season)

10.9 percent global acute malnutrition in children under 5 (source: SMART 2017)

US$ 43 m* six months (April-Sept 2018) net funding requirements, representing 70,6 % of total needs

Operational Context

Mauritania is a lower middle-income country in the Sahel, with a population of 4.4 million (UNFPA, 2017) living over a vast but mostly arid 1,030,700 km2 territory.

MAFOUNDOU, Mauritania, April 17 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Every year when the pastoralist men in Fatima Demba's Mauritanian village return from their months-long journey to find pastures and water, the women erupt in wild celebrations.

"We draw henna tattoos on our bodies, we braid our hair, we wear our nicest clothes," she said, re-adjusting her bright yellow and blue robe.

Yet although she longs for her husband to come home, Demba sees one benefit in his absence.

Mauritania hosts over 2,000 urban refugees and asylumseekers and more than 55,000 Malian refugees in Mbera, a camp established in 2012 in the arid south-eastern region close to the Malian border.

Despite the conclusion of a peace agreement in 2015, large-scale returns of Malian refugees are not expected due to persistent violence in northern Mali. In March alone, 928 new arrivals were registered in Mbera.

As the situation in northern Mali continues to be unstable, Mauritania struggles to cope with the growing needs of new refugees and the vulnerable host communities.

L’OIM travaille avec les autorités nationales, locales et des partenaires locaux, afin de mieux comprendre et connaître les mouvements migratoires à travers l’Afrique de l’Ouest et du Centre. Le suivi des flux de population (FMP) est une activité qui permet de quantifier et de qualifier les flux, les profils des migrants, les tendances et les routes migratoires sur un point d’entrée, de transit ou de sortie donné.

WASHINGTON, April 9, 2018—The World Bank Group approved today a package of $210 million in financing for a regional project to build the resilience of coastal communities in Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Mauritania, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal and Togo.

WASHINGTON, 9 avril 2018 – Le Groupe de la Banque mondiale a approuvé aujourd’hui une enveloppe de 210 millions de dollars pour le financement d’un projet régional destiné à renforcer la résilience des habitants du littoral de six pays d’Afrique de l’Ouest : Bénin, Côte d’Ivoire, Mauritanie, Sao Tomé-et-Principe, Sénégal et Togo.

70.1 M required for 2018

13.8 M contributions received, representing 20% of requirements

56.2 M funding gap for the Mali Situation

SITUATION

• Mauritania, a predominately desert nation of 4 million people, faces chronic poverty and hunger. The World Bank reports that nearly a third of Mauritanians live under the national poverty line. In addition, a mid-2017 national nutrition survey found that acute malnutrition affected approximately 11 percent of children younger than 5 years of age, representing a serious situation, according to UN World Health Organization guidelines.