Funds sought to help drought-hit families

Mauritania’s Red Crescent Society is seeking support for three small-scale projects costing an estimated 74,500 Swiss Francs (US $51,200) and aimed at improving food security in drought-hit areas, the International Federation of the Red Cross reported on Monday. Two of the projects will provide some 70 families with sheep to replace those they lost to drought, feed, and in some cases, barbed wire to fence off grazing land. The beneficiaries will include members of two women's cooperatives. The third project entails the organisation of workshops on agricultural production and the preservation of harvested crops for 15 female co-operatives in areas prone to food insecurity. Mauritania, a largely arid country of 2.5 million people, has been hit by drought since mid-2001. A number of people died in January 2002, when unexpected heavy rains and cold weather ruined pasture land, caused the death of 120,000 cattle, sheep and goats, and destroyed 25 percent of already harvested crops. In July 2002, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS Net) reported that rainfall had been insufficient throughout the country and that access to basic food supplies was alarmingly low, the Federation recalled. Price increases have been registered in various parts of the country. The staple millet and sorghum are generally unavailable in local markets and, when they can be found, prices are about 120 to 160 percent above normal. On 1 September 2002, Mauritania’s government appealed for urgent food aid in the form of 37,000 mt of cereal and 14,000 mt of complementary foodstuffs to meet the most urgent needs in 2002. Total cereal production for Mauritania is estimated at 161,800 mt (FAO) - a reduction of 9 percent on the previous harvest. For more information on the food-security situation in Mauritania and WFP Emergency Report no. 43.