MAURITANIA (11 September)
Following the firm start of the rainy season in mid- to late-July over most of the producing areas, which permitted widespread planting of coarse grains, precipitation remained abundant and regular during August, except in Trarza where mostly dry conditions still prevail. Heavy rains caused considerable casualties and damage to crops and livestock in several localities of Adrar, Brakna, Gorgol, Guidimakha, Hodh EChargui and Hodh El Gharbi. Planting and replanting of dieri (rainfed) crops are still under way throughout the country, except in Brakna and Hodh Echargui, where crops are tillering. Irrigated rice is being transplanted. Pastures are regenerating, which is improving the condition of the livestock.
Approximately 420 000 people throughout Mauritania required food assistance as a result of three consecutive poor harvests. In March 2002, WFP launched an EMOP valued at US$7.5 million to assist the 250 000 people who were the most threatened by food shortages. A Regional EMOP jointly approved by FAO and WFP in mid-December for five drought-affected countries in the west of the Sahel (Cape Verde, the Gambia, Mali, Mauritania and Senegal) included an allocation of 43 632 tonnes of food for Mauritania. As of late June, 78 percent of this amount had been covered by pledges.
Distribution of emergency food aid and the subsidized sales of wheat helped improve the food supply situation in Aftout, the Senegal River Valley and the central plateau area of Hodh El Chargui and Hodh El Gharbi, where near-famine conditions and high malnutrition rates and related diseases have been reported.