According to WFP rapid food security analysis in Gao and Kidal, the flow of staple goods between north and south remains disrupted. About 75 percent of shops in Gao and the Algerian border are closed (Algeria being a supply route on which Kidal is particularly dependant). People are using the river as an alternative supply route but this route cannot handle adequate quantities and water levels are decreasing in line with the seasonal calendar. Although the 2012/2013 agricultural campaign was adequate, cereal prices remain above the last five-year average due to the 2012 drought, political and security crisis and the need for reconstitution of household stocks impacting availability. Family food stocks are already running dangerously low, with many people, particularly pastoral and agro-pastoral groups, highly dependent on markets. As food stocks dwindle, people will increasingly turn to markets in the lean season when prices are historically highest. Should the economic activities not resume very soon, the food security of populations in the northern regions is foreseen to deteriorate very rapidly and cause great concern.
The lack of improvement in the security situation in the northern regions is not creating suitable conditions for the return of internally displaced people (IDPs). Most IDPs have now been displaced for 11 months and are hosted by relatives. This prolonged situation is putting a major strain on the already meager resources of host households.
March 2013
