Pockets of food insecurity reported

Pockets of food insecurity in Mali have prompted the Malian government to provide affected populations with cereals free of charge: it has distributed 9,513 mt of cereals to 350,000 people in the northern parts of Kayes and Koulikoro regions, according to the latest report of USAID's Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS-NET). The two western regions border on Senegal and Mauritania. The report, issued on 5 February, also said the Malian government had set up cereal banks in villages and provided them with 3,000 mt of grain, and waived value added tax on 40,000 mt of imported rice. FEWS-NET warned that the food situation in Mali could deteriorate as a result of the crisis in Cote d'Ivoire. The pockets of food insecurity had led the FAO and the CILSS [Comité Permanent Inter Etats de Lutte Contre la Sécheresse dans le Sahel - Permanent Inter-State Committee for the Struggle against Drought in the Sahel] to conduct a joint mission this month to assess the food situation and the grain supply on the local market, the report said. It said that according to provisional estimates, a deficit was expected, adding, however, that while prices were high, they had increased less quickly that in the corresponding period of last year. The full report is available in French