Mauritania: Drought - May 2018
OngoingOverview
Mauritania is currently facing a very serious food and nutrition insecurity situation, the worst that the country has seen in the last five years. According to the results of the latest Harmonized Framework (HF) of March 2018, 350,600 people are currently in severe food insecurity (phase 3, 4) and these figures could reach 538,446 people for the projected period of June to August 2018. These projections for the period of June-August correspond to 14 percent of the population, raising fears of a food crisis comparable to that of 2011-2012. This is the worst situation since the Harmonized Framework analyses are done in the country. (IFRC, 24 May 2018)
Affected countries
Maps & Infographics
Most read (last 30 days)
- Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Mark Lowcock: Statement on the humanitarian situation in the Sahel
- UN’s Emergency fund releases US$30 million to avert acute hunger and malnutrition in the Sahel
- Mauritania: Food Insecurity - Emergency Plan of Action (EPoA) n° MDRMR009
- Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, Ms. Ursula Mueller, Presentation of the Global Humanitarian Overview Status Report, June 2018
- Acute Food and Nutrition Crisis in the Sahel: A Call to Action, June 2018
Summary of adjustments made to the emergency plan of action:
The operational strategy changes as follow:
The emergency food assistance activities focus now only in the four communes on the department of Magta Lahjar (Oud Amour, Sangrave, Magta Lahjar and Djonabe bordering Barkeole). Such activities will not be implemented in the department of Barkeole anymore as the CSA (Commissariat a la Sécurité Alimentaire from the Government of Mauritania) and the WFP are already covering this area.
‘Trends in humanitarian funding: where are we now and what lies ahead’ at the ECOSOC Humanitarian Affairs Segment
Conference Room 12, United Nations, New York, 08:30 a.m. 19 June 2018
As delivered
Excellencies, distinguished guests,
Having heard from Development Initiatives about funding trends through 2017, I am pleased to present the mid-year Global Humanitarian Overview Status Report.
SAHEL
LE CHEF DES SECOURS DE L'ONU DEMANDE PLUS D'AIDE POUR LE SAHEL
CAMEROON
ATTACK HALTS AID OPERATIONS
PROJECTED FOOD ASSISTANCE NEEDS FOR DECEMBER 2018
According to the World Food Programme's latest report, it is estimated that 538 400 individuals are severely affected by food insecurity in Mauritania. This corresponds to 14% of the population and is by far the highest proportion in the region.
A response plan targeting 470 600 individuals in priority areas has been finalized by the Humanitarian Country Team, and food distribution has started in June.
The Sahel region is facing its worst food and nutrition crisis in years. Millions of people in Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal are struggling with hunger and malnutrition.
The lean season is also known as the ‘hunger months’, meaning food scarcity, epidemics and malnutrition. This year, it started as early as March in some areas and will last until September. But if the worst affected communities don’t receive assistance now, they will struggle to survive for months to come.
La région du Sahel est confrontée à une crise exceptionnelle caractérisée par des besoins humanitaires les plus aigus depuis des années, nécessitant une intensification urgente de la réponse. Des millions de personnes au Burkina Faso, au Tchad, au Mali, en Mauritanie, au Niger et au Sénégal luttent pour subvenir à leurs besoins alimentaires quotidiens et sont confrontés à une extrême vulnérabilité et à des difficultés croissantes.
The Sahel region faces an exceptional crisis with the worst humanitarian needs in years requiring an urgent scale-up of emergency response. Millions of people in Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal are struggling to meet their daily food needs and face extreme vulnerability and increasing hardships.
Poor rainfall in the 2017 season has sparked acute pasture and water shortages, raised food costs and caused livestock prices to plummet. Pastoralists have migrated months earlier than usual with millions of livestock in search of water and pasture.
I am increasingly concerned by the situation in the Sahel. In Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal, nearly 6 million people are struggling to meet their daily food needs. Severe malnutrition threatens the lives of 1.6 million children. These are levels unseen since the crisis of 2012, and the most critical months are still ahead.
By Issa Sikiti da Silva
This article is part of a series of stories and op-eds launched by IPS on the occasion of the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought on June 17.
DAKAR, Senegal, Jun 11 2018 (IPS) - Hope, smiles and new vitality seem to be returning slowly but surely in various parts of the Sahel region, where the mighty Sahara Desert has all but ‘eaten’ and degraded huge parts of landscapes, destroying livelihoods and subjecting many communities to extreme poverty.
Les problèmes liés au pâturage et les répercussions du conflit sur le commerce de bétail contribuent à faire augmenter les souffrances liées à la faim chez les éleveurs ouest-africains
UAE Embassy in Nouakchott distributed today humanitarian aid, provided by the Emirates Red Crescent, ERC, to underprivileged families in Mauritania.
Acting upon directives of Essa Abdullah Masood Al Kalbani, UAE Ambassador to the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, Humaid Hamdan Al Zaabi, from the UAE Embassy in Nouakchott, handed over the humanitarian aid to Sarah Bint Seidi, Secretary General of Al Rahma Charity, to be distributed, in association with some other charities, to the needy people.
The Appeal
The Mauritanian Red Crescent Society and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) are appealing for resources to bring food security, nutrition and livelihoods support to 17,400 people affected by Mauritania’s worsening food insecurity crisis – the worst in five years.
1.69 million Swiss francs needed
17,400 people to be supported
Snapshot
Can negotiating safe travel corridors across national borders help the Sahel's pastoralists survive intensifying drought?
By Zoe Tabary and Valeria Cardi
R'KIZ, Mauritania, May 30 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Chronic fatigue, weight loss and lingering sadness. Mohammed Elmouved does not need a doctor to diagnose his symptoms.
"It's my animals," said the livestock owner, at a dusty herders' camp in R'Kiz, on the edge of the Mauritanian desert.
A. Situation analysis
Description of the disaster
This Emergency Appeal seeks a total of some 1,693,785 Swiss francs to enable the IFRC to support the Mauritanian Red Crescent Society (MRC) to deliver assistance and support to some 17,400 people for 9 months, with a focus on the following areas of focus and strategies for implementation: Food security, Health (nutrition) and Livelihoods. The planned response reflects the current situation and information available at this time of the evolving operation and will be adjusted based on further developments and more detailed assessments.
(New York, 24 mai 2018)
(New York, 24 May 2018)
Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock released today US$30 million from the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to urgently scale-up relief efforts in West Africa’s Sahel, where an acute drought, combined with exceptionally high food prices and worsening insecurity, has escalated humanitarian needs.
