There are warnings of a growing crisis and security threat
emerging from the increasing number of refugees who have fled from Mali into
Mauritania. The number of refugees in the main Mbere camp in north-east
Mauritania, 60km from the Mali border, has risen to an estimated 75,000. Food
shortages are becoming critical and the health situation is worsening.
Humanitarian relief organisations, notably UN High
Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), the Mauritanian Commissariat of Food
Security and the International Fund for Food Security, along with UNICEF and
Doctors Without Borders, are being stretched, especially as the number of
refugees continues to increase and as the influx into the camps of poor families
from the Mauritanian cities of Bassiknou and Fassale also grows. According to
figures from journalists in the camps last week, about 100 deaths have so far
been recorded, mostly among the elderly, women and children, while more than
1,700 people are suffering from severe to moderate malnutrition.
If relief efforts are not accelerated, food shortages will be
exacerbated by the rainy season and blocked roads.
The US-based UPS delivery company flew some 13 tonnes of UNHCR
aid items into Nouakchott from Copenhagen (Denmark) on 3 June for distribution
in the Mbere camp, as well as vital UNICEF and World Food Programme
(WFP) supplies. UPS, which is a UNHCR corporate partner, is covering
all transport costs.
However, the message from the aid agencies is that more
substantial funding is urgently needed. Otherwise, the situation in the camps is
likely to become a humanitarian disaster, with serious implications for
Mauritania.
Malnutrition problems are not confined to the Malian refugee
camps. The WFP announced on 5 June that it was launching a Canadian-financed
distribution programme of food supplements to 30,000 six-to-23-month old
children in the Gorgol and Brakna regions, two of Mauritania's 'priority' zones
for intervention by the WFP and the Mauritanian government.
© 2012 Menas Associates
No comments:
Post a Comment