AlQa'dah 18, 1434, Sep 24, 2013, SPA -- The United Nations and its partners appealed Monday for immediate support for northern Mali, where three of four households do not have enough to eat and are heavily dependent on food assistance. An emergency food-security assessment—conducted by the government of Mali, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Food Program (WFP), and 15 other partners—estimates that there are about 1.3 million vulnerable people in the region who have not had the opportunity to recover following the recent conflict and last year's food crisis. "As internally displaced people and refugees begin to return to their home communities, the limited resources will be further strained and the number of people requiring assistance is likely to increase," the agencies said in a joint statement.
