Hunger crisis in the Sahel region of West Africa

We are travelling down a paved road in western Niger, on our way to the village of Garbay Tombo, which is participating in a project being spearheaded by Caritas Niamey. The horizon is ocher, dotted with greenery. There are trees scattered here and there and shoots of millet struggling to emerge from the ground, hampered in their efforts by the absence of regular rainfall.

A few months ago, we had the pleasure of premiering Salt+Light’s documentary A New Leaf, about the food crisis in the Sahel region of West Africa in several cities across Canada. These premiere events brought out hundreds of people who wanted to learn more about this little known part of the world and how as Canadians we can make a difference. In only a mere 30 minutes, audience members felt a connected solidarity with those whose stories spanned across the screen.

This summer, I travelled to Niger and Mali to report on the food crisis that was gripping the Sahel region of West Africa, as well as the impact that political instability in Mali was having on the population. Accompanying me for the Niger part, was a crew from Salt and Light Television, who we had invited to come to document how the population was coping and our response. Together, we visited villages where the threat of hunger was a daily struggle. We also visited a refugee camp for Malians fleeing the violence in their own country. We could see the despondency of the people in the camp, having been completely uprooted from their homes and without any real idea as to when they would be able to return, if ever. It was a journey of discovery for all of us, and I was anxious to see how this story would be told in the documentary.

The ongoing conflict in Mali is the result of a complex series of events in which each player has defended their own interests. Secessionist ambitions, control of natural resources, the imposition of sharia, are all claims raised by a variety of national and international actors.

When drought caused crops to fail in the Sahel region of West Africa last year, local Caritas organizations knew that the coming year would be a difficult one for the population. The Sahel is a dry, arid region that sits directly below the Sahara desert.

According to figures from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, more than 7,500 Malians have fled their country in the last two weeks. The intensification of fighting has compelled entire families, some of them in car or truck, others on foot or on the backs of donkeys, to seek refuge in neighbouring countries (mainly in Niger, Burkina Faso and Mauritania).

Apparently, it is never too early to teach the concept of solidarity, nor does it have to be difficult. When the Director of our 3-year-old boy’s daycare informed me that she intended to put together an awareness-building project on Africa for the 2-5 year-olds and that the exercise would culminate in a fundraising activity in support of our West Africa appeal, I was both moved and surprised.

The food crisis occurring in the Sahel region of West Africa has gone relatively unseen in the media, but on a recent episode of Perspectives Weekly, which airs on Salt + Light Television, it was featured as the main topic of discussion.

On my last day in Mali, I went to visit a centre in Bamako that is hosting 16 displaced families (98 people) who have fled the North of the country due to conflict there. Rebel groups have taken over several cities and have declared independence of this northern region, which stretches out towards the desert.

The Sikasso region in the South of Mali is dominated by the wide berth of the Niger River, making it favourable for the cultivation of rice. After a few days of rain here, the river is full and ready to irrigate the rectangular rice paddies nestled at its banks. But for rice to grow, there need to be seeds to plant.

The Government of Canada announced on Tuesday, August 7^th, that it will match dollar for dollar donations made to registered Canadian charities between August 7^th and September 30^th for the humanitarian crisis in the Sahel region of West Africa.

One of the main questions I had when I left for Niger, was why the country has been experiencing food crises more frequently. After a near famine in 2005, serious peaks in food insecurity have occurred in 2008, 2010 and now 2012. Professor Alpha Gado, a specialist in food crises in the Sahel at the University of Niamey, helped me to understand the complexities of a food crisis in a country like Niger.

Niger, like most of the countries in the Sahel, only has one rainy season, which means that the harvest that is cultivated from that rain is crucial to survive through the coming year. The time to plant the harvest, however, comes at a time when last year’s crop is nearly depleted and there is little, if anything, left to eat. It is a time when there is not enough food when it is needed most. To plant a field and work the soil requires energy, energy that is hard to find when there is nothing to eat.

We are in the Sae Saboua commune, in the Maradi Diocese. Today, 234 households from four villages are each receiving 80 kg of millet, 21 kg of "niébé" (dried beans) and 5 litres of cooking oil. This ration is intended to feed a family of seven for a month. As the men are in the fields, it is largely the women that gather at the distribution points. It is now the rainy season in this part of Niger and the millet that was planted with the initial rains in June is already well along and needs to be weeded. If all goes well, that is if the rainy season does not bring floods, if the crop doesn't dry up from lack of rain, or if caterpillars don't ravage the crop as was the case last year, the harvest is due at the end of September.

The village of Garbeygourou is found off an uneven dirt road that stretches over red sandy earth that has turned even brighter after a recent rainfall. The village itself only seems to be formed of a small cluster of huts, yet when we arrive and the village chief comes out to greet us, people begin to trickle out, slowly grouping in the middle of the village. Before we know it, there are at least 100 men, women, children and babies milling about behind us, with more arriving by the second. The village is receiving support from Caritas Niger because of food insecurity. Many families do not have enough to eat, and a there have been a few cases of severe malnutrition in some children.

As a major hunger crisis continues to worsen in West Africa, Development and Peace is widening its response in order to support relief projects in Mauritania, Chad and Senegal.

You might have read lately about the destruction of 7 of the 16 sacred mausoleums in Timbuktu in Mali by the islamist group Ansar Dine who is controlling the city since April 1^st, 2012.

We received last week an analysis from Théodore Togo, General Secretary of Caritas Mali (which we support in the actual food crisis), who presents 2012 as the year of all dangers in Mali.

This Sunday marks World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought. It was on June 17^th 1992 that the UN adopted the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). It is a day to remember the dangererous impacts of desertification and drought in the world.

The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) and Development and Peace have announced a joint campaign to respond to the serious food shortage and drought in the Sahel region of West Africa. Pope Benedict XVI earlier this year had appealed to the international community because of the situation.

I have arrived in Burkina. It was more or less of a chaotic arrival! I was meant to fly to Bamako, Mali, to later travel to Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso, but the situation being what it is, the flight to Bamako was cancelled and I landed directly in Ouaga. Fortunately, our partner OCADES knew what to do and I found myself in good hands!

I am writing my last blog post from home in Montreal. With the airport in Bamako closed, I was driven by our friends at Caritas Mali to neighbouring Burkina Faso (14 hours) so that I could fly back to Montreal from Ougadougou.

I spent my first day in Bamako with Gaston Goro, the Emergencies Coordinator at Caritas Mali, and Mamadou Diakité, an accountant with the organization. Caritas Mali was the first Caritas in the region to launch an appeal for aid to go towards the current food crisis here, but the response of the Caritas network – and the international community  -  has been slow.

Since this past January, over 200,000 people have fled their homes in Mali, mainly due to rebel offenses in the north of the country. Of this number, 107,000 have taken refuge in other parts of the country, while the rest have fled to neighbouring Mauritania, Niger, Burkina Faso and Algeria.