Tens of thousands are living in makeshift shelters without enough water or food, says medical aid group
DAKAR (AlertNet) - Tens of thousands of Malian refugees in Burkina Faso are getting too little aid, too slowly as needs outstrip resources, medical aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has said.
More than 46,000 Malians have crossed into neighbouring Burkina Faso since fighting erupted in mid-January between Malian forces and separatists from the Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), who have declared an independent state in northern Mali.
The refugees have been living in dire conditions for weeks in makeshift shelters with little water and food due to an inadequate response by aid agencies, said Jean Hereu, head of MSF in Burkina Faso.
“What we deplore is the slow response to this really difficult situation,” Hereu told AlertNet on the phone from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso’s capital.
The influx of refugees into the largely arid, drought-stricken Oudalan province is increasing pressure on communities that were already experiencing food and water shortages.
“The World Food Programme (WFP) was slow to respond in providing food aid, and when they did, they distributed cereals that did not match the refugees’ eating habits,” said Hereu. The U.N. food aid agency provided maize-meal when the mainly Tuareg refugees usually consume rice and millet, he added.
WFP said it responded a week after the first mass movement of Malian refugees in February, using supplies meant for its school-feeding and nutrition programmes in Burkina Faso where the traditional diet is based on maize.
“Tuareg-Malian refugees were demanding that they want rice, but we explained that this (maize-meal) was an emergency ration from what we had in our warehouses and that once things stabilised, we would get them rice,” said Angeline Rudakubana, the head of WFP in Burkina Faso.
“We immediately launched aid appeals, donors have responded well, we have accessed rice, and we are now distributing rice to the refugees,” she told AlertNet from Ouagadougou.
WATER ‘A HUGE ISSUE’
In March, WFP carried out a general food distribution for over 21,500 refugees and 6,100 host families, and plans to support up to 25,000 refugees for three months, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a report this week.
But food aid is still extremely limited, and refugees have little choice but to wait hours in the sun for a few litres of water, MSF said in a statement.
They do not have an adequate water supply, with just 7 to 10 litres available per person per day, far from international standards of 20 litres, Hereau said.
The medical charity is concerned that the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) plans to move refugees to a new site where there are no water points or shade in the locality of Ferrerio, he said.
Since February, UNHCR and its partners have repaired several local wells around Ferrerio and at other sites, enabling refugees and the local population to have decent access to water, according to a UNHCR spokeswoman for West Africa.
Helene Caux said two new boreholes would become operational in Ferrerio by Wednesday, and more are planned here and at other sites already hosting refugees.
“Water is indeed a huge issue,” Caux told AlertNet in Dakar. “That is why UNHCR and other agencies need to get more funding in order to, among other activities, build up water boreholes to sustain the needs of refugees so they don't become an additional burden on the already harsh lives of the local population.”
UNCHR launched an appeal for $35.6 million in February to assist Malian refugees in Burkina Faso, Niger and Mauritania. But the response from donors has been slow, with just $12.6 million pledged so far, Caux said.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
