GENEVA / MALI FOOD AID

The United Nation's World Food Programme (WFP) said Tuesday it was stepping up food assistance to Mali.  CH UNTV

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:02:10
• Production Date: 16 April 2013
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME - WFP
• Subject Topical: NUTRITION; HUMANITARIAN RELIEF
• Geographic Subject: MALI
• MAMS Id: U130416i

Description

STORY: GENEVA / MALI FOOD AID
TRT: 2.10
SOURCE: CH UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 16 APRIL 2013, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / FILE

Shotlist

FILE – RECENT 2012, PLAIS DES NATIONS, GENEVA, SWTIZERLAND

1. Wide shot, exterior Palais des Nations

16 APRIL 2013, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

2. Wide shot, conference room
3. SOUNDBITE (French) Elisabeth Byrs, Spokesperson for the World Food Programme (WFP):
“In Tessalite and in the district of Aberara in the Kidal region, one in five households are facing a food shortage. This situation is very worrying because it will cause a high level of malnutrition.”
4. Cutaway, journalists
5. SOUNDBITE (French) Elisabeth Byrs, Spokesperson for the World Food Programme (WFP):
“Access is difficult. Food prices are extremely high, especially in Timbuktu. So the WFP will increase its operations in northern Mali due to the approach of the Lean season which is from April to July, and given the extremely volatile environment, the NGOs, the UN, and humanitarian agencies will be required to assess the daily security situation in northern Mali.”
6. Cutaway, journalists
7. SOUNDBITE (French) Elisabeth Byrs, Spokesperson for the World Food Programme (WFP):
“The food situation, after a study that was done with the UN team in Mali, shows that the household food situation is deteriorating, particularly in Timbuktu and Gao and we see that especially in the north of Mali, this situation will deteriorate due to the lean season.”
8. Wide shot, journalists

Storyline

The continuing conflict in Mali combined with the country’s impending “lean season” is threatening to aggravate hunger in the Sahel nation, the United Nations food aid agency warned today, adding that it was “urgently working” with partner organizations to help affected families, particularly in the country’s North.

According to the agency, one household out of five in the northern regions of Timbuktu, Gao and Kidal faces extreme food shortages, with a significant deterioration of household food consumption in the past week.

Elisabeth Byrs, the World Food Program’s Spokesperson in Geneva today said that, “This situation is very worrying because it will cause a high level of malnutrition.”

With fast approach of the so-called “lean season” – a three-month dry period stretching from April to June – the WFP is planning to provide food assistance to 145,000 people in Timbuktu, 86,700 in Gao, and 34,500 in Kidal.

Byrs, who was holding her weekly briefing, noted that access was difficult and that food prices were extremely high, especially in Timbuktu, but she added that the WFP would increase its operations in northern Mali due to the approach of the Lean season which is from April to July, and, she added that “given the extremely volatile environment, the NGOs, the UN, and humanitarian agencies will be required to assess the daily security situation in northern Mali.”

In addition, the agency plans to support over half a million people in Mali on a monthly basis despite an overall budgetary shortfall of $159 million.