The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has provided the government of Mali with 7,372 tonnes of foodgrains to help the most vulnerable households in the country.
The foodgrains, including maize, rice, millet, and sorghum, were taken from the stocks of the ECOWAS Regional Food Security Reserve (RFSR) and delivered by the ECOWAS Commissioner for Agriculture, Environment and Water Resources, Sékou Sangaré.
Established in 2013, the RFSR aims to complement the efforts of member states to provide rapid and diversified food and nutrition assistance to the populations in need.
Recurrent natural disasters, severe poverty and civil conflict since 2012 have exacerbated food insecurity and hunger in Mali.
Mali has one of the highest rates of child malnutrition and food insecurity in the world, with every one in six children suffering from acute malnourishment.
The Malian government made an official request to the RFSR for food support on 18 May, 2021.
Receiving the foodgrains, the Minister and Commissioner for Food Security, Redouwane Mohamed Ali, expressed Mali’s gratitude to ECOWAS for the regional solidarity.
He reassured stakeholders that the support will help strengthen the intervention capacities of the national food security system and alleviate the food needs of the populations severely affected by food crisis.
Similar interventions, which fall within the operationalisation of the ‘ECOWAS of the Peoples’, were carried out in 2019 and 2020, with the country receiving over 3,000 tonnes of foodgrains.
Source: ECOWAS
Photo source: : ECOWAS
