ICRC Says Will Keep Providing Aid To People In Mali's Hard-to-Reach Areas

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 08th August, 2023) The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) will continue to provide all the necessary assistance to the vulnerable communities living in Mali's hard-to-reach areas and facing the combined effects of armed clashes, displacement and climate change, Mutsa Mugangavari, the deputy head of the ICRC regional delegation in Southern Africa, told Sputnik.

"The ICRC is committed to continuing its humanitarian operations to support the most vulnerable affected by the conflict. This support is extended to people displaced and the host communities, particularly in the hard-to-reach areas where fewer humanitarian actors work. We will continue answering the population's needs in the best possible way and within our capacities, through protection, assistance, and resilience building humanitarian programs," Mugangavari said.

It is Mali where the ICRC has been focusing most of its operations over the past 32 years, she noted, adding that despite the assistance provided, the humanitarian situation in the country's conflict-torn areas remained worrying, with local residents forced to live under increased pressure on natural resources, livelihoods and basic services.

Speaking about the ICRC's efforts in Mali, Mugangavari mentioned the organization's support of hospitals in the regions of Gao and Mopti, as well as of reference health centers in the communes of Kidal and Menaka, where the committee has permanent medical and surgical teams.

"Between January and June 2023, this enabled over 40,160 injured patients, including emergencies, to access free healthcare services," she said.

In total, the ICRC supports 25 community health centers in Mali's most affected areas by providing drugs, consumables, equipment, medical evacuations, capacity-building and payment of incentives to medical staff, Mugangavari told Sputnik.

Moreover, the necessary medical aid is also supplied to the Malian physical rehabilitation center and its three branches in Mopti, Timbuktu and Gao, the deputy head of the ICRC regional delegation said.

"This enables people who have been physically impacted by the conflict to get fitted with prosthetics and walking aids, and receive physiotherapy sessions. The ICRC also supports the Pere Bernard Verspieren center in Bamako. Between January and June 2023, 405 patients were fitted with prosthetics in those five centers," Mugangavari added.

An armed conflict between government forces, militants of separatist movements and Islamist groups began in Mali in 2012 and is still ongoing. Over a decade of violent clashes in the country has resulted in continued insecurity, climatic shocks, massive displacements and a catastrophic humanitarian situation. The United Nations estimates that around 8.8 million people in Mali need humanitarian assistance.