POVERTY: SAHEL: Displaced Malians burden food-insecure hosts

BAMAKO/DAKAR, 6 February 2012 (IRIN)

 Photo: ReliefWeb
Map of areas affected by fighting and subsequent displacement

Some 12,000 Malians have fled fighting in the towns of Ménaka and Anderamboucane in northern Mali and reached already food-insecure villages around Tillabéri in western Niger, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Niger’s capital, Niamey.
The Malian refugees are spread across the villages of Mangaizé, Chinégodar, Koutoubou, Yassan and Ayorou in Niger, according to the Malian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with the bulk of them - an estimated 7,000 - in Chinégodar, which is usually home to 1,500, according to Franck Kuwonu at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Niamey.
Fighting broke out between Touareg rebels and former soldiers from Libya, and the Malian army in mid-January. Rebel groups and former Libya fighters have reportedly acquired fresh weapons as a result of the Libya conflict and have launched a new movement, the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), which calls for the creation of an independent state encompassing the regions of Gao, Kidal and Timbuktu in northern Mali.
Niger’s Tillabéri region has been hardest hit by the 2011 drought and poor harvest and many inhabitants are already facing severe food insecurity, according to the government and aid agencies. Though assessments are still under way, the government estimated late last year that just under half of Niger’s population would be short of food this year.
“Chinégodar doesn’t even have enough grain to feed its own small population,” said Kuwonu, noting there are three tons of millet in the cereal bank. Millet prices in the area are 24,000 CFA francs (US$50) per 100kg bag, up from 19,000 CFA francs ($40) this time last year.
The ICRC and NGO Médecins Sans Frontières have been quickest to respond to refugees’ needs, the former having repaired water pumps in stressed host towns and distributed some blankets, shelter materials and food; the latter sending a nurse with basic medical supplies to help those in need.
However, logistics are slow said Kuwonu, and more food and shelter is needed. The ICRC spokesperson in Niamey, Germain Mwehu, told IRIN there is enough aid to meet immediate needs but not over the long-term.
An inter-agency UN mission evaluated the area last week and agency representatives are meeting tomorrow to discuss their response. Oxfam has also assessed the situation. All agencies will closely coordinate with the government on their response, said Kowonu.

Heading for Mauritania, Burkina, Guinea
According to PANA Press, some 6,000 Malians have also fled fighting in Léré, Niafunké and Goundam in Mali’s northern Timbuktu region, and are sheltering in Fassala Néré in Mauritania, some 1,260km east of the capital Nouakchott. A number of the children among them are allegedly severely malnourished, according to local NGO Association for Research and Development in Mauritania.
The local authorities and UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) are currently assessing the situation in more detail, UNHCR spokesperson Elise Villechalane told IRIN from Nouakchott. An unknown number of Malians have also fled east to Burkina Faso and western Guinea, says the ICRC in Mali.
Meanwhile, an unknown number of Malians are fleeing south to Mopti, some 640km north of the capital Bamako, and to Bamako itself.
Amina Coulibaly, a producer with national radio in Gao, eastern Mali, told IRIN from the capital: “Fighting has not yet broken out in Gao [town] but given that it is one of the places the Touaregs want to make part of their republic, I prefer to leave now.”
Mali has been struggling for several years to contain rebel groups in the north, the rising power of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) factions, and widespread contraband traffickers in its northern regions.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportID=94803

POVERTY: CHAD: The Libya fallout

DAKAR, 29 June 2011 (IRIN)

 Photo: Craig Murphy/IOM : Migrants arriving in Chad (file photo)

 Chadian families are facing worsening food insecurity, becoming more indebted, and selling off personal possessions as they try to cope with the loss of remittances from relatives who have returned home from Libya.
Remittances, which half of the households in Chad's western and southwestern regions of Kanem and Bahr el Ghazal used to receive, are down by 57 percent, according to a survey by NGOs Oxfam and Action Against Hunger (ACF). Households on average were sent US$220 per month.
Most families in the two regions have reduced the number of meals they eat; 70 percent are eating less nutritious foods, while just under a third are resorting to wild foods such as leaves and berries.
One in five households interviewed had sold possessions to raise money; while most said they had taken out loans to get by.
At the same time, families are struggling to feed returning members: Some 43,000 migrants have returned in trucks from Libya to Chad over the past three months, according to Craig Murphy, operations officer at the International Organization for Migration (IOM). In Bahr el Ghazal family size has increased by as many as 13 people, according to the Oxfam/ACF survey.
"These people are going home to zones which already experience food insecurity even when there is no `crisis', said Philippe Conraud, head of humanitarian operations at Oxfam in West Africa. "They need food, water - the basics, to get by."

Chronic hunger
People in the Sahel are chronically food insecure: In 2010 some 10 million people were at risk of hunger due to prolonged drought and poor harvests; almost one in five children were chronically malnourished, and 5 percent severely, according to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Programme (WFP).
A minority of families are looking to new income sources: begging, sending children out to work, travelling to other towns and cities in search of work, or harvesting their crops early, according to ACF and Oxfam.
Many returnees are determined to find any work they can. Seventeen-year-old Moussa, who just returned home to Faya, the largest city in northern Chad, after working on a farm in Libya, told IOM he would try to find work in a salt mine now that he is home.
Agencies - including IOM, the World Health Organization (WHO), WFP, UNICEF, and NGOs including Oxfam and the International Rescue Committee (IRC) - have been helping provide returnees with food, medicine and water at transit centres and in major destination towns such as Faya. Nutritional support, which is urgently needed, will soon be put in place, said WHO programme coordinator Thomas Karengera.

Measles
Many migrants arrived with measles, leading IRC, WHO and UNICEF to launch vaccination campaigns for children aged six months to 15 years. A national measles vaccination campaign will soon be launched to contain the spread of the disease. As of 19 June some 5,311 people had contracted the disease across 20 of Chad's 22 regions since the beginning of the year, with 63 deaths thus far, according to Chad's Health Ministry.
"We are vaccinating children as soon as they arrive at transit centres, so the disease should not spread further," Felix Léger, IRC Chad country director, told IRIN. Many migrants are arriving run-down, malnourished and dehydrated, he said, increasing their receptiveness to the disease.

Cash
Oxfam is considering cash distributions to vulnerable families but first needs to ascertain if traders have enough capacity to supply the markets.
Cash in fragile markets will not work. "We don't want to be in a situation where cash distributions cause prices to rise, so those without cash cannot afford the high prices. That could have a harmful impact," Conraud told IRIN. Only 46 percent of traders in Kanem and Bahr el Ghazal had over two months of stocks, according to their research.
Prices of some basic foods have risen: In Kanem's capital, Mao, imported wheat was 43 percent higher in April 2011 compared to April 2010; peanut oil was up by 44 percent, and rice 6 percent; millet prices had dropped.
It is still unclear how many Chadians are likely to return from Libya said IOM's Murphy, who estimates tens of thousands remain. The number of arrivals has declined in recent weeks, "but this could just be a lull," he said.

Persecution
Migrants who had recently arrived told IOM they are being driven out not only by ongoing fighting and instability but also the loss of employment and fear of being persecuted. Fighters from the Sahel were reportedly hired early on to support Col Gaddafi, leading to fears among migrants that they will be targeted.
Some migrants may plan to return to Libya as soon as fighting stops, said Murphy. This may be the reason why migrants were left stranded on the road by trucks in Zourake near the Niger border, he said.
Donors and aid agencies need to step up, warned Conraud. "If more migrants need to leave Libya, and arrive in the vulnerable Sahelian zone, then households' ability to get by will be seriously compromised. Very few actors from the international community are aware of this situation; everyone is looking at the Libyan side of the border, but more need to look at the Mali, Niger and Chad sides," he said.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportID=93098

POVERTY: CHAD-LIBYA: Agencies prepare for more migrants

DAKAR, 25 May 2011 (IRIN)

 Photo: Kate Holt/IRIN
The inhospitable terrain in Western Chad

As thousands of Chadian returnees continue to cross from Libya into Chad - via Niger - villagers near the arrival points face a “double burden” with remittances drying up and their scarce resources overstretched, said International Organization for Migration (IOM) operations officer Craig Murphy.
Some 25,000 Chadians have returned since the conflict in Libya began, according to IOM. Most arrive in the small village of Zouarké, 600km northwest of the town of Faya from where returnees find transport to return to their home villages and towns.
There are now many more migrants than residents in Faya, which is usually home to 15,000, said Felix Léger, head of the NGO International Rescue Committee (IRC) in Chad.
Though no one can estimate how many more migrants are on their way, according to Murphy 1,566 turned up in Faya in just two days - on 23 and 24 May - and there is no sign of the number abating.
While the immediate concern is to get food, water, and health care to returnees, in the long term they will need assistance in finding work, said Murphy. “It [the influx of returnees] puts a strain on all these towns - a lot of them are dependent on remittances and those have dried up. Now they have to support them, which is a double burden,” he told IRIN.
IOM is starting by profiling migrants to assess what they did and what they earned in Libya, with a view to perhaps assisting them in re-starting work in Chad, said Murphy.
According to IOM, 90 percent of the returnees are young men who have worked for years as manual labourers, farmers, and guards in Libya; the rest are women and children.
Tensions have risen in Zouarké, usually home to just a couple of hundred people, where there is one well which must now serve thousands. Murphy saw 1,000 people trying to access the well in one day.

 Photo: Reliefweb

Measles
Following arduous journeys of about 30 days with minimal food or water on overloaded trucks, migrants arrive in Zouarké and Faya exhausted, hungry and sick. Common illnesses include advanced dehydration; respiratory illnesses; diarrhoea; and about 20 cases of measles - mainly among adolescents and children, according to IRC.
To stem the spread of measles, the organization will launch a one-week vaccination campaign in Faya targeting 10,000 people. It also screens incoming migrants for health problems, sending them to the local hospital if they need treatment.
Due to severe staff shortages at the hospital, IRC has put in place one doctor and two nurses.
In the immediate term, in Zouarké, IOM is sending food, and will set up a water tank to enable returnees to access well-water from a second point. Meanwhile, in Faya it is registering returnees, providing food, and helping find transport so they can return home.
Migrants in Faya are receiving more or less enough help, said the IRC’s Léger, but the response must be scaled up in Zouarké and along the roadside in Niger - both before migrants arrive in Chad and once they have left Faya, he said, adding that IRC is considering setting up medical “way stations” on busy migrant routes.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportID=92810

POVERTY: Return to NIGER from LIBYA: “In Libya you face bombs, but in Niger you face death”

AGADEZ, 19 May 2011 (IRIN)

 Photo: Ibrahim Diallo/IRIN
Nigeriens who have fled conflict in Libya arrive in Agadez

Migrants who have fled the conflict in Libya to return to Niger say they are having to beg, steal, or sell off remaining animals or plots of land to survive, so as not to burden their already impoverished families, most of whom are struggling with food insecurity.
Some 66,200 Nigeriens have returned to Niger from Libya since the end of February, most arriving in the northeastern town of Dirkou, from where they find transport to take them to villages and towns around the country, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). The majority were involved in agricultural work in Libya, for which they earned up to US$216 (100,000 CFA) per month.
Returnee, Mohamed Lamine, told IRIN: “It was with huge regret that I left Libya. I can’t stand having to rely on my aging parents to survive. I will return as soon as possible.”
Now most of them are jobless and many are in debt, having paid inflated transport costs for the roughly three-week journey across the desert, and high administrative costs to enter the country, according to an inter-agency assessment of two departments in south-central Zinder Province, by the government, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and NGO Care International.
“Thousands and thousands of men have left to return to unemployment in Niger. We have no choice but to beg in the streets or to steal,” Abdelkadre Moussa, a returnee in Agadez in the centre of the country, told IRIN. “In Libya you face bombs, but in Niger you face death.”
Most of the migrants originally came from southern Niger, including the Tahoua, Zinder, Tillabéry and Maradi regions, all of which have suffered food insecurity following the drought that severely diminished harvests in 2009 and 2010, according to the assessment.

Already food-insecure
In Tanout Department, Zinder Province, where 15,000 returnees have resettled, just under half of the villages are classified as vulnerable, according to the April assessment. By this it means villagers have already lost significant numbers of livestock; are facing water shortages; have suffered agricultural deficits in 2009 and 2010; and are facing difficulties buying food due to high food prices.
“The return of these migrants will worsen the vulnerability of these communities,” Mamoudou Daouda, representative of IOM in Dirkou, told IRIN. “In some cases the whole economy of these villages relied on remittances… This situation risks becoming untenable.”
IOM has been helping returnees travel back to their villages.
Grain stocks are too low to meet the needs of all returnees, according to Daouda. The Gouré and Tanout regions have experienced six consecutive seasons with agricultural deficits.
Many families are selling off the few animals they have left in order to support the recent arrivals.
Ahmed Hamaditane, father of a recently-returned migrant in Agadez, told IRIN: “We have run out of food. We have decided to sell off a plot of land, but no one is buying at the moment.”
“My son returned with nothing except an illness,” he added.

Remittances sharply down
Migrants sent as much as US$217,000 (or 100,000,000 CFA) per week collectively, to Gouré Department. Now that money is drying up. Alhadji Amarma, who helps workers transfer money home to families in Agadez, told IRIN he has little to no work.
Most men IRIN spoke to in Agadez said they used to send between US$108 and $216 a month to their families.
Adamou Habi, a member of a refugee management committee representing the governor of Agadez, told IRIN: “These are very, very difficult times. We are overwhelmed by the influx of people. We are doing our best with the help of a few individuals who have helped people return to their homes, but I don’t think we can hold up for much longer.”
“We really need aid,” he added.
Last week the government called on international donors to try to support returnees and their families.
The government, aid agencies and donors must respond before mid-June, which is traditionally the start of the lean season in Niger, government officials stressed.
The number of returnees crossing into Niger has recently diminished, said Daouda, with 500 entering daily, versus 1,200 in mid-April. However, more women and children are now crossing over, a sign that workers are bringing their families with them.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportID=92757