The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) announced Tuesday that it plans to increase aid to Niger and Mali, "where several million people are suffering from serious food shortages triggered by drought," SAPA/News24 reports. "The ICRC's additional 23 million Swiss franc ($22m) programme nearly triples the Geneva-based agency's existing 13 million franc relief aid earmarked for the two poverty-stricken countries this year," according to the news service.
The aid will target 100,000 people in northern Mali and northwestern Niger "where food shortages are aggravated by sporadic communal violence, [ICRC] spokesperson Marcal Izard said" (4/6).
"The ICRC will distribute food rations over the next eight months, monthly food rations for about 85,000 people," Izard said, VOA News reports. "Plus it will distribute seeds and tools and will also help with training for around 40,000 farmers," he added. "Government statistics indicate more than 250,000 people in northern Mali are short of food. And, in Niger, the government estimates more than half of the entire country's population, or eight million people, is suffering from moderate to severe food insecurity," the news service writes (Schlein, 4/6).
Nicolai Panke, head of ICRC operations in Mali and Niger, said that rainfall last year was "irregular and approximately 70 percent below the annual average." He said, "Because of the weather conditions and the difficulty of moving about amid the violence, the harvest was poor and people have been running out of food while cattle don't have enough pasture."
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