Worsening food insecurity in Ménaka amid poor humanitarian access

• Crisis (IPC Phase 3) outcomes will continue until September for poor households in Bankass, Koro, Douentza, Rharous and Ansongo, due to food access difficulties linked to early depletion of stocks, high prices and livelihood degradation resulting from the impacts of insecurity. As for poor households in the Ménaka region, where almost 46 percent of the population is displaced, the deteriorating security situation in April and May led more people to liquidate their productive assets or face large consumption gaps. In June, food insecurity will likely deteriorate to Emergency (IPC Phase 4) from June to September 2023, particularly for poor households in inaccessible areas due to very limited access to sources of income and food, and to humanitarian assistance.

• Poor households' access to food is reduced throughout the country due to high staple food prices of over 30 percent compared to the five-year average. The early depletion of stocks, the deterioration in the terms of trade between livestock and cereals for livestock farmers, and the overall drop in income, particularly in insecure areas, are exacerbating food access difficulties in insecure areas in the center and north of the country, leading to atypical recourse to borrowing and reduced non-food or even food expenditure.

• The current pastoral lean season is progressing normally in the country, thanks to average livestock conditions. However, limited access to certain pastures in the insecure areas of central and northern Mali and the western Sahel (north of Koulikoro and Ségou) is leading to unusual concentrations of livestock and an unusual deterioration in pasture conditions in the host areas, which is adversely affecting livestock feed, animal production and, consequently, pastoral income for livestock farmers.

• The 2023 agricultural season is underway across the country, with clearing, manure transport and even sowing activities in the far south of the country providing average income and food opportunities for poor households. The average off-season rice harvests underway in the irrigated perimeter areas of Koulikoro, Mopti, Gao, Timbuktu and the Office du Niger will improve food supplies of this commodity.

Recommended citation : FEWS NET. Mali. Key Messages: Worsening food insecurity in Ménaka amid poor humanitarian access, 2023.