30 Jan 2013

MALI / HUMANITARIAN

The World Food Programme said today it hopes to get food aid to half a million people in Mali, including more than 130,000 internally displaced people like Assaita Walet, whose extended family of 30 has been forced to rent a two-room house in the capital Bamako since fleeing conflict in the North. It is so crowded some of the children have to sleep on the roof. WFP / FILE

Posted at: January 30, 2013 3:35 pm

Duration: 02:00

Available in: SD

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STORY: MALI / HUMANITARIAN
TRT: 2.00
SOURCE: WFP 
RESTRICTIONS; NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 30 JANUARY 2013, ROME, ITALY / 27 JANUARY 2013, BAMAKO, MALI / FILE

SHOTLIST:

27 JANUARY 2013, DAOUDABOUGOU QUARTER, BAMAKO, MALI

1. Wide shot, Assiata Walet and her family walking down stairs
2.  Wide shot, Assiata Walet preparing food
3. Med shot, Assiaga Walet carrying bag of food aid
4. Med shot, Assiaga Walet sitting with a child next to her
5. Wide shot, Assiaga Walet on her terrace arranging bed mats

30 JANUARY 2013, ROME, ITALY

6. SOUNDBITE (English) Jane Howard, Spokesperson, World Food Programme (WFP): 
"After the military intervention to take back the north of Mali, WFP was forced to suspend its operations temporarily. But now it has resumed distributions and hopes to reach about half a million people with food assistance in an emergency operation."
 
27 JANUARY 2013, DAOUDABOUGOU QUARTER, BAMAKO, MALI

7. Med shot, Assiaga Walet, washing pots
8. Med shot, Assiaga Walte sitting and children around her 
9. Med shot, family portrait

FILE - NOVEMBER 2012, GAO, NORTHERN MALI

10. Various shots, women and children gathered at WFP food distribution point

FILE - 4 DECEMBER 2012, SEVARE IDP CAMP, MOPTI, MALI

11. Wide shot, porters carrying bags of WFP food onto local boats
12. Med shot, boxes with Plumpy Nut
13. Close up, grains sifted
14. Wide shot, people gathered around a food distribution
15. Wide shot, IDPs tents
12. Med shot, children standing next to tent
13. Wide shot, a woman and children sitting by their tent
14. Med shot, family eating
15. Med shot, a family and the mother getting grains

STORYLINE:

The World Food Programme (WFP) said today (30 January) that with the resumption of its operations in Mali, it hopes to get food aid to half a million people, including more than 130,000 people who have fled to the south of the country.

Assaita Walet is a 43 year old mother was forced to flee her hometown of Gao in northern Mali as a result of conflict that erupted in April of 2012.

She and her extended family of 30 have been forced to rent a two-room house in the Malian capital of Bamako. Due to a lack of room space, some of the children have to sleep on the roof.

With the food assistance she receives from WFP, Walet has at least been able to afford to pay the 30,000 CFA (about 60 USD) per month she needs for rent.

Jane Howard, WFP's Spokesperson said that following the military intervention to take back the north of Mali, the agency was forced to suspend its operations temporarily.

But now, Howard said, WFP has resumed its distribution operation hoping to reach "about half a million people with food assistance in an emergency operation".

In addition to the internally displaced people and host families in the southern regions of Mali, this includes 400,000 people in the north in Timbuktu, Gao and Kidal.

Until the new outbreak of military hostilities on 10 January, WFP was managing, through its partners, to move emergency food assistance into the north using all available means of transport, including boats to Timbuktu along the Niger River. It is now ready to resume moving food by barge to the north once the security situation stabilizes.

The food agency is working to overcome chronic problems of food insecurity and malnutrition in Mali, while it's still recovering from a severe Sahel drought.  According to WFP this years harvest has been generally favourable, but while there is food in the markets, many people cannot afford to buy it, due to high prices and lower incomes.