Monday, August 20, 2012

Five Million Face Starvation In Mali

Mali: Five Million Face Starvation -- The Independent

A horrific situation is developing in West Africa. Christian Aid's Andrew Hogg reports from Mopti.

Appearances in Mali are deceptive. The country is in the grip of a food crisis, yet fields either side of the road heading north from the capital, Bamako, are lush with newly grown crops of maize, millet and okra.

Mango trees abound, alongside baobabs, valued for their fruit pulp, which makes a porridge high in vitamin C, as well as karite trees – called shea in English – which bear nuts providing cooking oil. Roadside stalls boast bananas, guavas and aubergines, while, at intervals, fisherman in pirogues can be seen at work on the broad, dun-coloured waters of the River Niger or on one of its major tributaries, the Bani. But the further one journeys towards the front line with the north of the country, largely desert and now in the hands of Islamist rebels and Tuareg secessionists, the sparser the vegetation, and the hungrier the people.

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More News On The Crisis In Mali

Families in Mali running out of food -- Examiner
Aid Agencies Combat Mali Cholera Outbreak -- Voice of America
Resistance to Islamist terror stirs in northern Mali -- Deutsche Welle
U.N.: Over 435,000 displaced, children forced to fight in Mali -- L.A. Times
Warlord threatens war on the West -- NBC News
Mali announces new government 5 months after coup; some ministers close to coup leader -- Washington Post

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