Mauritania
Forgotten Mauritanian food crisis persists

afrol News, 27 April - There has been a slight improvement in the food situation in areas of the country classified as extremely food-insecure, but Mauritania's food crisis still persists. In contrast, grazing conditions for large stock animals (cattle and camels) are reported to be "catastrophic".

According to the latest report from the US agency Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS), the internationally forgotten drought and hunger crisis in Mauritania is continuing. Mauritania's southern region has experienced a heavy drought and food crisis for over one year and international response has been minimal.

The "slight improvement" in the food situation registered had been a result of "the combined effects of mass out-migration, which has reduced household food needs, and the start-up of initial relief efforts" by the World Food Program (WFP), the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and the Food Security Commission (CSA). The WFP had already issued a region-wide alert appealing for 43,632 tons of emergency aid for Mauritania, and, thus far, has secured approximately 30 percent of the funding required.

Although the food situation in the affected area had improved, grazing conditions were now reported to be catastrophic. Sand storms had been sweeping through the country since early March, accelerating the degradation of pasturelands and drying up surface water resources. Distress sales by pastoralists continued, and cattle prices on livestock markets around the country had plummeted more than 50 percent.

There was "no more available pasture anywhere" in the affected region. The few remaining pockets of pastureland close to the Malian border were so degraded by now that "even camel drivers have begun to abandon them for better grazing lands in Mali." The government had begun a social marketing program for animal feed.

The harvesting period for grain crops is now over, with all regions of the country reporting mediocre harvests. The small areas planted in riverbank crops had been harvested before reaching full maturity due to heavy pressure from wandering animals, FEWS reports. The famine therefore will go on for a second year.

With this year's mediocre harvests and currently severe levels of environmental degradation, at this point in the season, the only areas considered to be in average condition are those in which local farmers have been able to grow vegetable crops or, in other words, areas in proximity to River Senegal and to oases with access to water.

- The rest of the country, without exception, is in poor condition, FEWS however concludes. Despite ongoing interventions, Aftout, the Senegal River Valley, the central plateau area of Hodh El Chargui and Hodh El Gharbi and slum areas in large cities (Nouakchott, Nouadhibou, Kiffa and Kaëdi) were still being classified as "extremely food-insecure areas".

While Mauritania so far has received limited foreign food aid, the country's development partners were now "beginning to respond to appeals for assistance from the Mauritanian government," FEWS reports. Mauritania has now received close to 20,000 tons of food aid from a number of donors - in particular USA, Switzerland, Japan, Great Britain and WFP.

The Mauritanian food crisis, which has greatly changed the way and structure of life in the country's rural areas, however remains one of the world's forgotten disasters. Specialists fear that the - comparatively small but heavily published - crisis following the US aggression against Iraq will make it even harder for countries like Mauritania receiving international funds in response to their drought crises.

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