| UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER |
ABIDJAN, 30 JULY 1998 (IRIN) - International aid agencies told IRIN this week that recent rains had brought some relief to drought-stricken areas in Sahel countries in West Africa. But experts predicted that the lean June-September planting season would be difficult for a large segment of the population as food stocks reserves had fallen considerably after three consecutive years of poor rainfall and harvests.
Hence it was expected that pockets of malnutrition would continue to exist, while prices of basic food commodities would remain prohibitively high in most parts of the sub-region.
According to an African food specialist, 23,000 mt of emergency food aid would be needed in 1998 to assist the most vulnerable. The source told IRIN that most Sahel countries were suffering from a chronic cereal deficit, which was now compounded by arid climatic conditions and rapidly advancing desertification. Countries, which enjoyed more regular rainfall such as Chad and Mali have had to contend with migrating populations from food-deficit countries seeking a better life.
In Niger, the Meteorological Office reported in 1997 that the country had received only 33 per cent of its annual rainfall in the last three years. In a bid to offset the drought's negative impact, the World Food Programme distributed 1,798 mt of millet in 1998 to people in need. Despite heavy precipitation in July, experts said it would have to rain for a month to have a lasting impact on crops and pastures.
In mid-July, Niger state-television carried footage of cattle and other livestock dying from lack of pastures and water in Tahoua, in eastern Niger. And a UN source added that many villagers had fled their villages for Niamey because of arid conditions.
Meanwhile, Senegal has reportedly not recovered from the very low rainfall in 1997. The country's breadbasket, the southern province of Casamance, faced with increased separatist conflict, has been unable to produce enough food, an aid official said. The Senegalese government thus had to distibute 14,000 mt to its vulnerable people in 1998.
Meanwhile an official of the African food monitoring body, the Inter-state Committee for Combatting Drought in the Sahel (CILSS), told IRIN on Thursday that Senegal, The Gambia and Mali had received late and uneven rainfalls forcing farmers to plant several times for lack of rain. These farmers subsequently have lost the bulk of their planting seeds.
Another Sahelian country, Chad has received 12,500 new Sudanese refugees in the areas along the Chad-Sudan border this year where most have been living with families whose capacity to feed them have been seriously strained. However, the crop situation in the country has been fairly stable.
In Mauritainia, according to the US-based Famine Early Warning System (FEWS) bulletin, the cereal production estimate in 1997-1998 fell to 108,000 mt, a 21 per cent shortfall from its preliminary estimate.
Climate predictions for July to September 1998 seemed
to be fairly favourable in the Sahel. At the first
workshop of the West African Regional Climate Outlook
Forum in May, FEWS reported that participants predicted
that rains would be near-to below-normal, possibly
alleviating some drought-related problems in the region.
Abidjan, 30 July 1998, 16:50
[ends}
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Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1998 16:53:22 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.dha.unon.org> Subject: IRIN-West Africa: Sahel report, 30.7.98 Message-Id: <Pine.LNX.3.95.980730164912.24135A-100000@wa.dha.unon.org>
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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