April 30, 2002 -- Some 250,000 Mauritanians are threatened by serious food shortages after drought and recent torrential rains. The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) has made an urgent appeal for US $7.5 million to help feed them.

From April through September, 70,000 people in the worst-hit areas north of Gorgol, north-east of Brakna and south-west of Assaba will receive rations of rice, beans and vegetable oil. From June through September 180,000 people in the Aleg Plateau, the Senegal River valley and south of the two Hodhs will be supplied with simple cereal rations. WFP and the Mauritanian Food Security Commission are co-ordinating the emergency food aid.

Seasonal droughts and the poor distribution of rainfall in the 2001/2002 growing season, combined with exceptionally strong rain from January 9 to 11, have created the risk of an unprecedented food crisis in Mauritania. The rain, mainly in the regions of Trarza, Brakna, Gorgol and Tagrant, rotted over 6,000 metric tons of rice and damaged grazing land, crops and livestock.