Red Cross seeks help to avert humanitarian crisis in Mali and Niger
Geneva, 02 Mar – (ANA) - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is appealing for 12.3 million Swiss francs (about 10 million euros) in order to bring aid to some 700,000 people in Mali and Niger and thereby help forestall a major humanitarian crisis in the two countries. “People in Mali and Niger are facing a twofold crisis: the food insecurity that has afflicted the entire region, and the fighting in the north of Mali that is driving massive displacement,” said Boris Michel, the ICRC’s head of operations for North and West Africa. The armed confrontations that have occurred in northern Mali in recent weeks have forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes in utter destitution and to seek refuge either within Mali, as at least 60,000 people have done, or in neighbouring countries. Those who have fled to Niger are concentrated in the northern Tillabéry region, one of the areas hardest hit by the food crisis and the scene of recent inter-community violence. (ANA)
FA/ANA/02 March 2012---------