Malian Red Cross dispatches humanitarian aid to Timbuktu

"We delivered five tonnes of food, including rice, to the hospital of Timbuktu, mats, blankets, but also drugs," said Adama Diarra, the honorary president of the Malian Red Cross, who led a delegation arrived in the city on Thursday, reports APS.

"We left Timbuktu and are on the road to Bamako," French news agency AFP quoted the official as saying.

The Red Cross delegation has seen the "urgency" of the situation in the city, under control of armed groups since April 1, ten days after a military coup toppled President Amadou Toumani Toure.

Integrated Regional Information Networks reports that  aid workers are facing a trio of challenges in northern Mali: extensive drought-induced food insecurity and pasture shortages; conflict between Tuaregs and the Malian army; and the resulting displacement of thousands more Tuaregs, say aid agencies on the ground.

The country has some three million people who are predicted to be vulnerable to severe food insecurity, and is one of eight Sahelian states facing food insecurity this year due to a mixture of poor 2011 rains, region-wide high food prices, chronic vulnerability and poverty. According to OCHA.

In its latest February Sahel strategy, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA ) in West Africa estimates over 10 million people will be food insecure this year, unless they receive help soon.

Meanwhile, a yet-to-be-confirmed figure of 15,000 Malians have fled across the border to Niger according to IRIN; some 13,000 to Mauritania, and 8,000 to Burkina Faso, according to UNHCR.

Fighting in and around Gao Region has led to 26,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs); while 4,000 are displaced in villages around Augelhoc, 150km northeast of Kidal; and thousands more are expected to be displaced in Kidal's Tessalit area, as well as Léré and Niafunké in Timbuktu, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

Most of those who have fled are in very bad shape, and were already suffering from food insecurity, say aid agencies.

In northern Mali, while most aid agencies are continuing to work, "it is hard to scale up if there is a war situation going on," said Walters, while Germain Mwehu, a spokesperson with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Niamey, told IRIN: "The situation is very complicated".

NGO Médecins du Mondes pulled out of its Kidal office recently due to insecurity.

ICRC is one of the few agencies to operate in northern Mali, with sub-offices in Timbuktu, Kidal and Gao. "We already have programmes for the food crisis; now we also have displacements because of the conflict, as well as displacement of people who were drought victims," said Mwehu, adding that the organization is negotiating with all parties to the conflict to try to maintain humanitarian access.

The Malian Red Cross has been distributing basics to some displaced households.
Given there are still many "no-go" areas in the north, agencies have been discussing the possibility of humanitarian corridors there, said Walters, though nothing has yet been identified.
For several years insecurity has driven WFP to work only through partners in the north - in this case ICRC and NGO Trans-Sahara.

Adding to the difficulties in scaling up in the north are "enormous" logistical constraints, including huge distances to cover, low population density, and unpredictable population movements.
"What is needed is an air service connecting Mopti, Kidal and Gao," Walters told IRIN.

It is only with the mounting security and displacement crisis that people have begun to realize Mali is now at equal risk as Niger or Mauritania, said Bishop.