MALI / DISPLACED

Tens of thousands of internally displaced people have found shelter in and around the central Mali town of Mopti since the rebel take-over of the North. UNHCR

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:02:37
• Production Date: 21 December 2012
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES - UNHCR
• Subject Topical: HUMANITARIAN RELIEF; REFUGEES; DISPLACED PERSONS
• Geographic Subject: MALI
• MAMS Id: U121221a

Description

STORY: MALI / DISPLACED
TRT: 2.37
SOURCE: UNHCR
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: FRENCH / SORAI / NATS

DATELINE: 18 NOVEMBER 2012, MOPTI, MALI

Shotlist

18 NOVEMBER 2012, MOPTI, MALI

1. Wide shot, UNHCR tents
2. Wide shot, UNHCR tents, child walking
3. Wide shot, a woman with children
4. Wide shot, children, one of them clapping
5. Wide shot, a woman preparing meal
6. Wide shot, river and fishermen
7. Wide shot, two boats in a river
8. Wide shot, people sitting in a shade
9. Med shot, women covering their faces
10. Wide shot, UNHCR aid supplies
11. Med shot, UNHCR aid supplies
12. Wide shot, refugees collecting blankets
13. Wide shot, food distribution
14. Wide shot, displaced person Awa Touré walking in
15. SOUNDBITE (French) Awa Touré, internally displaced person (IDP):
“We left Gao because of the rebels, my children and me. We found mats, blankets and buckets, but that's not enough.”
16. Med shot, woman signing on aid supplies distribution list
17. Wide shot, men walking to collect various supplies
18. SOUNDBITE (French) Sekou Dramé, Representative of Mopti Regional Committee:
“In the beginning we did not have enough rooms. People arrived in family groups, sometimes 18 people in all when the average here is seven. With the help of the regional committee we solved the problem in a day.”
19. Close up, distribution ticket “62812687 Al Warate. Dicka.”
20. Wide shot, distribution site
21. Wide shot, man pushing the cart with food bags
22. Med shot, children playing
23. Close up, Aissata Ascofari's face
24. Med shot, Aissata Ascofari leaning against wall and waiting for distribution
25. SOUNDBITE (Sorai) Aissata Ascofari, displaced person:
“I left Gao quickly when the Islamists arrived. I found refuge in Mopti with my children and husband who has been ill since we arrived. We really need the help of UNHCR. If I am here today, it is to benefit from the distribution. I am pregnant and this distribution is essential to my family and me.”
26. Wide shot, female IDPs waiting
27. Wide shot, women and children IDPs waiting
28. Med shot, two women with babies
28. Close up, baby face
29. Med shot, Aissata Ascofari waiting
30. Wide shot, IDPs waiting
31. Close up, woman’s face
32. Wide shot, male IDPs waiting
33. Close up, a woman
34. Wide shot, teenage IDPs
35. Wide shot, tents
36. Med shot, children sitting on the ground
37. Close up, girl IDP looking at the camera

Storyline

Tens of thousands of internally displaced people (IDPs) have found shelter in and around the central Mali town of Mopti.

A hotel that used to cater to taxi drivers and quickly erected tents are now home to fifty-eight families who came here from Timbuktu, Gao or further North.

Mopti is where the desert meets the savannah, where the Niger and Bani rivers merge, where those fleeing the rebel take-over of Northern Mali first arrive. Since the take-over, Mopti became one of furthest towns to the north still controlled by the government.

Assistance to IDPs is given by the local government, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). A few times a week there is a distribution of rice and oil.

Awa Touré escaped Gao with her children.

SOUNDBITE (French) Awa Touré, internally displaced person (IDP):
“We left Gao because of the rebels, my children and me. We found mats, blankets and buckets, but that's not enough.”

For the locals, helping all the displaced is a not without its challenges.

SOUNDBITE (French) Sekou Dramé, Representative of Mopti Regional Committee:
“In the beginning we did not have enough rooms. People arrived in family groups, sometimes 18 people in all when the average here is seven. With the help of the regional committee we solved the problem in a day.”

On the other side of the town another distribution center. But some of the displaced need special attention. One of them Aissata Ascofari, who fled Gao with her husband. She is eight months pregnant.

SOUNDBITE (Sorai) Aissata Ascofari, displaced person:
“I left Gao quickly when the Islamists arrived. I found refuge in Mopti with my children and husband who has been ill since we arrived. We really need the help of UNHCR. If I am here today, it is to benefit from the distribution. I am pregnant and this distribution is essential to my family and me.”

Aissata is one of the 200, 000 people displaced since a conflict started in January 2012, some here, and some to Niger others to Mauritania.

Armed groups still control Northern Mali, making the situation too unstable for people to even think of returning.

Northern Mali has been occupied by radical Islamists after fighting broke out in January between Government forces and Tuareg rebels. The renewed clashes in the north, as well as the proliferation of armed groups in the region, drought and political instability in the wake of a military coup d’état in March have uprooted hundreds of thousands of civilians this year. Over 412,000 people have been forced to flee northern Mali, and an estimated five million people have been affected by the conflict.

Yesterday (19 December) the Security Council authorized the deployment of an African-led International Support Mission in Mali, to be known as AFISMA, for an initial period of one year to assist the authorities in recovering rebel-held regions in the north and restoring the unity of the country.