ReliefWeb

Food security worsens in northern Mali due to conflict

Current and projected acute food insecurity in the northern regions of Mali (Timbuktu, Gao, and Kidal) is more severe and widespread than previously expected due to the impacts of late‐ March conflict on livelihoods, markets, and humanitarian assistance. By mid‐April more than 240,000 people (approximately 20 percent of the population of northern regions) were displaced.
Of those approximately 147,000 sought refuge in Niger, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, and Algeria. Assuming that prevailing civil insecurity persists, severe market disruptions will continue to limit household access to essential food and livelihood needs in the north. Displaced people and poor households in riverine areas and in agropastoral areas of Gao are likely to face the most severe food security outcomes; they are both further from main markets and subject to heavy banditry. Between January and April only assistance from poorly‐resourced local and Malian institutions was accepted, and the impact has not been significant. Additional emergency response above current levels is required to protect human lives and livelihoods.