8 Nov 2012

MALI / FOOD INSECURITY

The UN today said 4.6 million people remain at risk of food insecurity in Mali and access to food for people in the north is deteriorating. WFP is using barges to ship food up the Niger River to the desert city of Timbuktu and communities cut off by the ongoing conflict. WFP

Posted at: November 8, 2012 5:34 pm

Duration: 01:57

Available in: SD

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Full script

STORY: MALI / FOOD INSECURITY
TRT: 1.57
SOURCE: WFP
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGEl: FRENCH / NATS

DATELINE: 8 OCTOBER, MOPTI, MALI

SHOTLIST:

1. Wide shot, men unloading bags of food from WFP lorry by barge
2. Med shot, unloading bags from lorry
3. Wide shot, unloading bags from lorry to barge
4. Med shot, unloading bags from lorry
5. Various shots, man carrying bag in water and loading it to barge
6. SOUNDBITE (French) Daouda Guirou, Spokesperson, WFP:
"WFP is bringing food assistance to the people affected by the conflict in the north. In total WFP aims to bring food aid to more than two hundred thousand people in the north of the country. For this purpose WFP has signed agreements with eight international NGOs, which are NGOs active in the North, who also work with the local communities, with the imams, with the village committees composed of village elders on the distribution of supplies."
7. Med shot, men carrying bags onto barge
8. Wide shot, port with barge
9. Med shot, men carrying bags onto barge
10. Tracking shot, barge navigating
11. Med shot, boxes inside barge
12. Wide shot, barge navigating
13. Wide shot, barge in waters at sunset

STORYLINE:

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian affairs (OCHA) says 4.6 million people remain at risk of food insecurity in Mali and access to food for people living in the north is deteriorating.

The World Food Programme (WFP) has been partnering with NGOs to deliver food commodities using boats, called 'pinasses', to vulnerable communities located along the Niger river.

WFP deliveries to the north are made through both road and river transportation. While trucks are used to reach the region of Gao and Kidal, it is a combination of boats and truck transportation that is being used to reach Timbuktu. Boats are loaded in Mopti port in central Mali, where the food is taken out of the WFP warehouses.

SOUNDBITE (French) Daouda Guirou, Spokesperson, WFP:
"WFP is bringing food assistance to the people affected by the conflict in the north. In total WFP aims to bring food aid to more than two hundred thousand people in the north of the country. For this purpose WFP has signed agreements with eight international NGOs, which are NGOs active in the North, who also work with the local communities, with the imams, with the village committees composed of village elders on the distribution of supplies."

Waterways offer a more secure means of transportation to areas in the north of the country where the political and security situation remains volatile. And while trucks can transport up to 40 metric tons, pinasses can load up to 90 metric tons of food - enough to feed some five thousand people for a month. It takes them two days to cover the 400 kilometer distance between Mopti and Timbuktu.

Since the beginning of the Mali crisis WFP has supported around 270,000 people, including 200,000 refugees and 74,000 internally displaced people, with food.

In the month of November, WFP aims to reach 240,000 people in the three northern regions of Timbuktu, Gao and Kidal, working through partner organisations. The agency is focussing especially on preventing malnutrition in children under the age of five, as well as in pregnant women and nursing mothers.

WFP has also begun an emergency school feeding programme in 290 schools in southern Mali, so that vulnerable children, including those whose families have fled from the North, get breakfast as well as lunch at school.