The non-governmental organization (NGO) Save the Children says more than 140,000 people in the Malian town of Menaka, including 80,000 children, face malnutrition and disease due to a blockade by Islamic State-linked insurgents. The humanitarian organization warns that the months-long blockade has driven supplies to alarmingly low levels as aid agencies and Malian government programs struggle to deliver basic necessities.
In a statement Wednesday, Save the Children said that unless aid gets to the Menaka communities soon, the area could see many deaths in coming months. The London-based organization said some of its workers who went to assess the needs of the population have been trapped for more than three weeks.
“Children in Menaka are trapped in a living nightmare. Let us be clear: unless the blockade is lifted, starvation and disease will lead to deaths,” Siaka Ouattara, Mali country director for Save the Children, said in the statement.
“A third of these children fled to Menaka, thinking it was a safe refuge from violence back home. Many of these children are unaccompanied and separated – at grave risk of exploitation and abuse. They are unable to get the protection and support they need.”
More than 80,000 children are trapped in Menaka, nearly a third of whom - some 34,000 - have already fled fighting in other parts of the country and are living in temporary shelters in camps and with host families.
Save the Children is calling on all parties to allow unhindered humanitarian access to the people of Menaka, who are in urgent need of assistance.
The blockade in Menaka follows a siege of the historic city of Timbuktu that began last August and has trapped more than 136,000 people, including 74,000 children.
In Timbuktu, however, some aid has been able to reach people in need, according to Save the Children.
David Otto, a Nigerian-based security analyst, says the lack of government presence in northern Mali is complicating aid efforts.
"Humanitarian activities within that region also have been very, very much limited," Otto told VOA.
"Not just due to insecurity, which is one of the main factors, but also due to the fact that the regime or the military government has limited access to that region for humanitarian organizations on the basis of jihadist groups."
Aid agencies say Mali is locked in a complex crisis, facing criminal organizations, an Islamist insurgency, socio-economic challenges, and climate change.
According to Cadre Harmonise 2024, a framework used to identify food and nutrition insecurity in the Sahel and West Africa, more than 40,000 residents of Menaka are already facing emergency levels of hunger, and more than 800 people are at catastrophic levels.
Aid agencies warn that the situation is expected to deteriorate in June, by which time nearly 50,000 people in Menaka will be at emergency levels and in need of urgent assistance.
Kevin Oduor teaches International Criminal Law at Technical University in Kenya. He told VOA that starving the population in Menaka is a war crime.
"Blocking aid getting to the people is tantamount to exposing them to murder, exposing them to situations that would hinder them from living their full life," said Oduor. "So, these are actually war crimes."
Mali's military junta recently launched a joint operation with the military governments of Burkina Faso and Niger to fight jihadist and insurgent groups that have destabilized parts of West Africa. The junta says it sees the operations as a way to alleviate the suffering of its people at the hands of armed groups.
But the government has been unable to break the sieges of Menaka or Timbuktu. Meanwhile, the government has ordered the UN mission in Mali to close its offices and end its assistance to the population.
Otto says that saving lives and feeding its people are not top priorities for Mali's military government.
"The government is now focusing a lot on dealing with security issues rather than actually looking at the humanitarian aspects within that area," said Otto.
"This is why you are seeing an increase in the number of people living in very dire circumstances within that region. Right now, the government is focusing on consolidating its power from a military and defense point of view rather than actually providing some kind of economic or sustainable assistance to the people living in this area."
Experts warn that Mali's unwillingness to cooperate with regional and international institutions could worsen the humanitarian situation in the country.
Mali is a landlocked state in the Central Sahel region, where nearly half of the highly dispersed population lives in extreme poverty. The country ranks near the bottom of the Human Development Index (HDI).
The situation in Mali is one of the most forgotten and neglected humanitarian crises in the world. Since 2012, conflict, insecurity, and climatic shocks - including drought and seasonal flooding - have led to displacement, food insecurity, and widespread humanitarian needs across Mali.
Since 2022, hostilities have intensified across the country after Malian forces launched large-scale operations against the al-Qaeda-linked Jamaa Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) and the rival Islamic State of the Greater Sahara (ISGS). Both Islamist non-state armed groups (NSAGs) have frequently carried out attacks against civilians.
The situation is particularly critical in conflict-affected areas in the north and center of Mali, where access constraints and forced displacement exacerbate vulnerability.
Security incidents, attacks and abductions are a daily reality for millions of civilians and humanitarian workers in the field. Attacks on civilians and infrastructure, as well as conflict between the state and non-state armed groups, have led to massive population displacement.
Some 392,000 people are currently internally displaced in Mali. In addition, the Central Sahel state hosts more than 66,000 refugees, most of whom have fled insecurity in bordering countries. Some 200,000 Malian refugees are hosted by neighboring countries, including Mauritania, Niger and Burkina Faso.
The plight of the people of Mali is part of a wider regional emergency in the Central Sahel, which also includes Burkina Faso and Niger. Armed conflict, deteriorating security, political instability and widespread poverty are the main drivers of humanitarian needs in the Central Sahel.
Across Mali, some 795,000 people are currently at crisis or worse levels of hunger, and 2.8 million people face stress levels of food insecurity. Over the course of 2024, 1.37 million people are expected to fall into acute food insecurity (crisis or worse).
Mali experienced another military takeover in May 2021. The withdrawal of the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali (MINUSMA) by December 31, 2023, has affected the dynamics of the conflict and led to renewed hostilities. According to human rights groups, attacks by non-state armed groups have increased across Mali in recent months.
The 2024 Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) for Mali seeks more than US$700 million to support over 4.1 million people across the Sahel country in 2024. As of May 3, the HRP was only 10 percent funded. An estimated 7.1 million people in Mali need humanitarian assistance this year, including 3.8 million children and 1.6 million women.
Some information for this report provided by VOA.
Further information
Full text: Mali: 80,000 children trapped and running out of food in second blockaded town, Save the Children International, press release, published May 1, 2024
https://www.savethechildren.net/news/mali-80000-children-trapped-and-ru…