The SDC is dispatching a logistician of its Swiss Humanitarian Aid Unit. To date, the SDC has spent CHF 1.5 million on food aid for Niger and Mali. The situation in the affected areas is slowly improving. Long term measures must be implemented to remediate the structural causes of such occurrences.
In addition to financial contributions of almost CHF 1 million in the past four months, SDC's humanitarian aid is dispatching a logistician to Niger. The specialist will be seconded to the World Food Programme, WFP, most likely until the end of the year. His mission is to assist in the distribution of food and cereal to the southern part of the country which is severely affected by the food crisis. This contribution supplements emergency programmes already implemented by the SDC's Cooperation Office in Niamey.
In Mali, the SDC has also contributed over CHF 400,000 to provide food aid to the populations affected by drought. Switzerland is able to supply cereals to some 50,000 people via its development aid programmes.
Both Niger and Mali are priority countries for SDC's development cooperation. The SDC has been present in these countries since the 1970's with programmes geared towards local governance and decentralisation and agro-sylvo-pastoral production. The SDC is also active in the field of food crisis prevention and post-crisis rehabilitation. The supplementary humanitarian aid actions are integrated into these programmes.
According to official figures, some 2.65 million people (out of a total population of 12 million) still require food aid throughout the month of August. The WFP is considering a second food distribution operation in September, which should reach 1.7 million people in the region where the drought was most damaging and where the food shortage persists. Furthermore, WFP and UNICEF estimate that 480,000 children under five years of age and pregnant or breastfeeding women are receiving food supplements. 150,000 of them are suffering from severe malnutrition which is elevating Niger's already very high child mortality rate (25% of children die before the age of five).
For further information:
Jean-Philippe Jutzi, SDC spokesman, phone
031 324 91 68 or 079 292 08 49;
e-mail: jean-philippe.jutzi@deza.admin.ch.