ACT Alliance Preliminary Appeal: Assistance to Malian Refugees and HostCommunities in Mauritania

Reuteur
The 2011 drought in the Sahel region and the military operations in Mali launched by France and other African countries in January 2013 have led to the increase of Malian refugees hosted in the Mbera Camp in Mauritania. As of April 21, 2013, the total number of Malian refugees in Mbera Camp was 74,452 people which included 21,636 refugees arriving between January and March 2013. The presence of Malian refugees in the drought-affected area has further put pressure on the scarce resources (including food, water, social facilities, fire wood, etc.).

The security situation in the South-East Mauritania remains volatile due to the presence of AQMI (Al Qaida au Maghreb Islamique) in the Sahel Region and also due to the on-going armed conflict in North Mali. As a consequence of the deteriorating security situation, the Government of Mauritania has declared the Hodh El Charghi region (where Mbera Camp is located) as a military zone. Hence, the Government has increased the number of troops in order to further provide protection to the civilian population, and ensure convoys and escorts to humanitarian organizations.

The Mauritania Programme of The Lutheran World Federation/Department of World Service (LWF/DWS) has already provided assistance to Malian refugees and host communities in 2012 through the appeal MRT121 in partnership with UNHCR, government and other agencies. The appeal funding enabled LWF to provide cash transfers to the most vulnerable households, train women on the production of enriched food, distribute high protein biscuits (BP5) to the malnourished Malian children and to provide water collection and storage materials to the Malian refugees.

This preliminary appeal will be followed by a full appeal with an estimated total cost of the response of US$400,000. This appeal is a continuation of the 2012 response (MRT121) to implement the following activities planned with the Malian refugees in the Mbera Camp and for host communities’ people:

• Provide shelters to some people with specific needs among the Malian refugees (shelters and survival kits)
• Provide psychosocial support to the Malian refugees (consultation and counselling, cultural and recreation activities, child friendly spaces)
• Provide nutritional support to Malian refugees and host communities’ people (high protein biscuits, nutrition education/sensitization, supplementary centres, production of enriched food)
• Support Farmers and Pastoralists from host communities in agro-pastoral activities (training, technical support)

The new appeal (MRT131) will use the balance of funds form MRT121 and additional funding requested from ACT Alliance.