Response to appeal good, but more needed

The national and international response to Senegal's appeal for aid to victims of weather disaster in the north four weeks ago, has been favourable but needs to be sustained to rebuild affected areas and lives, an official said on Tuesday.

Boubacar Traore, head of the national committee in charge of the relief effort, told IRIN that, among other donors, Italy had offered US $97,000 through UNDP for purchase of immediate relief items, and Libya had delivered food and medical equipment. Other contributions since the appeal on 17 January, have come from Algeria, China, France, Germany, and United States.

On Friday, the UN World Food Programme ended a 500 MT-rice distribution programme to about 10,000 families in the districts of Saint-Louis and Louga, the two areas in northern Senegal which were most affected.

Between 9 and 11 January, heavy off-season rains and a cold spell, when temperature dropped from 40 degrees Celsius to 16, swept through the two districts, killing 28 and affecting 179,000 people. At least 470,000 livestock also died. Infrastructures, including houses, were demolished and the rains washed away farmlands and destroyed crops.

According to Traore, livestock are still suffering. He added that the disaster has had a significant impact on local towns because it had destroyed a "century's worth" of work.