Supplying local markets with basic foodstuffs is increasingly becoming more of a challenge

During the first three months of the year, incidents and fatalities more than tripled compared to last year and more than doubled compared to the three-year average. The deteriorating security situation has slowed the delivery of assistance and supplies to markets, especially in the northern half of the country, which depends on supplies from the capital and production areas in the west.  Insecurity continues to cause new population displacements, particularly in the Sahel, North, North Central, and Boucle du Mouhoun regions. According to SP/CONASUR registration data, the number of IDPs increased from 1.58 million in December to 1.81 million at the end of February, an increase of about 15 percent.

Nationally, market supplies of cereals and pulses remain below average. Demand is higher due to increased displaced persons and the early depletion of self-produced stocks for poor households, particularly in the northern areas most affected by insecurity and production shortfalls. At the end of February, record price increases of between 60 and 80 percent compared to the five-year average were observed for staple grains in the markets of Seytenga, Sebba, Arbinda, Kelbo (Sahel), Haaba, Gayéri (East), Titao (North), Boulsa, and Kongoussi (Center-North). Record price increases contribute to the deterioration of household purchasing power, negatively affecting diet quality.

Since mid-February, the isolation of the commune of Djibo, which contains the Soum province main market, has increased the price of staple foods (millet, corn, oil) by 50-90 percent compared to the average. Since January, in an early pastoral lean season, the blockade is also negatively affecting animal feed and access to water. The closure of the livestock market is preventing destocking, resulting in increased animal deaths. The loss of income sources and atypical commodity price levels contribute to poor households’ food access deterioration. Households are forced to limit their daily meals to one and to reduce food quantity and quality. In addition, according to key informants, the planned delivery of food assistance for March has yet to materialize. An increase in the number of poor households, primarily IDPs in the high-presence communes (Djibo, Arbinda, and Kelbo), facing Emergency (IPC Phase 4) acute food insecurity is likely.

In the inaccessible communes north of Oudalan province, poor IDPs (24 percent of the population) that have lost their assets and poor host households that no longer have stocks from own-production are adopting severe strategies with a reduction in the number of meals to one and an increase in the frequency of going a full day without eating. Households, particularly those comprised of IDPs, face Emergency (IPC Phase 4) acute food insecurity. For other categories of households, the more than 40 percent deterioration in the terms of trade for livestock/milk relative to the average is negatively affecting their purchasing power.