VZCZCXRO7376
RR RUEHMA RUEHPA
DE RUEHBP #0610/01 1831503
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 011503Z JUL 08
FM AMEMBASSY BAMAKO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 9381
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE
RUEHAS/AMEMBASSY ALGIERS 0452
RHMFIUU/COMSOCEUR VAIHINGEN GE
RHMFISS/HQ USAFRICOM STUTTGART GE
RHMFISS/HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 BAMAKO 000610 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT PASS TO USAID 
DAKAR FOR OFDA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM EAID SOCI ML
SUBJECT: DISTANCES AND DISORGANIZATION HAMPER ASSESSMENT OF 
HUMANITARIAN SITUATION IN KIDAL 
 
REF: A. BAMAKO 00567 
     ¶B. BAMAKO 00415 
     ¶C. BAMAKO 00575 
     ¶D. 07 BAMAKO 01080 
 
¶1.  Summary:  On June 26 the Embassy met with International 
Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) delegate Andreas Schmidt 
to discuss the living conditions of populations displaced by 
fighting in northern Mali.  A hand-written report sent to the 
Embassy by the Director of the Malian Red Cross in Kidal on 
June 24 said displaced populations around the towns of Kidal, 
Aguelhok, Abeibera and Tinzawaten lack sufficient quantities 
of food, water and medicine.  The Kidal Red Cross also 
reported an outbreak of measles in Tinzawaten and Guinea Worm 
in Abeibera.  Mr. Schmidt, who accompanied the Kidal Red 
Cross to Kidal and Aguelhok and is based in Gao, said it was 
difficult to discern whether the needs of displaced 
populations were a product of dislocations caused by recent 
fighting or simply due to northern Mali's harsh living 
conditions and long dry season.  Schmidt said the remoteness 
of many displaced populations and local officials' lack of 
organization hampered efforts to fully assess the 
humanitarian situation north of Kidal.   On June 19 Nina 
Walet Intallou, who serves as the highest, and only, elected 
woman from the region of Kidal, reiterated concerns expressed 
by the Governor and Mayor of Kidal regarding an impending 
humanitarian crisis (Ref. A).  End Summary. 
 
--------------------------- 
Red Cross and ICRC Findings 
--------------------------- 
 
¶2.  On June 26 ICRC delegate Andreas Schmidt shared with the 
Embassy some of his findings from a recent trip to the towns 
of Kidal and Aguelhok in northern Mali.  Schmidt is in the 
process of setting up an ICRC office in Gao and said the ICRC 
is seeking to expand its presence in northern Mali and 
northern Niger.  The Malian Red Cross in Kidal facilitated 
Mr. Schmidt's visit to the Kidal region and arranged for him 
to meet with 26 Malian soldiers captured by the Tuareg 
Alliance for Democracy and Change (ADC) and 57 Malian 
soldiers captured by Ibrahim Bahanga.  Schmidt also visited 
an unspecified number of Tuareg combatants held by the 
Malians in prisons in Kidal and Bamako.  He said both sides 
were respecting international norms and conventions in regard 
to their treatment of prisoners. 
 
¶3.  Schmidt said he found it hard to discern whether the dire 
conditions confronting displaced populations in northern Mali 
were due to recent hostilities between Tuareg rebels and the 
Malian military or simply a product of northern Mali's harsh 
environment and a prolonged dry season.  Security 
complications prevented Schmidt from visiting any towns in 
northern Mali other than Aguelhok and Kidal.  He said that 
populations camped outside the towns of Aguelhok and Tin 
Essako were strong candidates for humanitarian assistance but 
that the ICRC needed a more complete assessment of their 
needs.  He also said that the ICRC intended to evaluate the 
results of 20 tons of food and other supplies recently 
distributed to displaced people camped on the outskirts of 
Tinzawaten (Ref. B) before moving ahead with assistance plans 
for other displaced populations. 
 
¶4.  On June 24 the Embassy received a hand-written copy of a 
report by the Kidal office of the Malian Red Cross on the 
humanitarian situation in northern Mali.  The report said 
"panic" amongst inhabitants in the Kidal region continued to 
spread despite the recent lull in fighting between the Malian 
army and disparate Tuareg rebel groups.  In the area around 
the town of Aguelhoc the Red Cross identified 940 families 
displaced by recent fighting and now living in make-shift 
desert encampments.  Approximately 3500 families in the city 
of Kidal are also in need of assistance due to lack of food, 
water and rising prices.  The Red Cross team was unable to 
visit the town of Abeibera but the town's mayor estimated 320 
displaced families in need.  The Red Cross reported an 
outbreak of measles affecting displaced populations camped 
around the town of Tinzawaten.  In Aguelhok the Red Cross 
reported "several hundred" new cases of Guinea Worm arising 
from tainted water supplies. 
 
¶5.  Back in Bamako, Schmidt told the Embassy it was difficult 
for him to assess the accuracy of the numbers provided by the 
Red Cross due to the remoteness of many displaced 
populations.  He also said that local leaders in Kidal were 
 
BAMAKO 00000610  002 OF 003 
 
 
not as organized as he had expected and that he encountered 
difficulties simply compiling an assessment of vulnerable 
populations within Kidal's city limits.  Schmidt said he 
encouraged the Governor of Kidal and other local officials to 
better organize themselves in order to facilitate assistance 
from international organizations. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
Kidal's Highest (and Only) Elected Woman Official 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
¶6.  On June 19 Nina Walet Intallou told the Embassy that as 
many as 70 to 80 percent of Kidal's inhabitants have left the 
city to live in desert encampments throughout northern Mali. 
Intallou is a member of Mali's 75 seat High Council of 
Collectivities.  She was elected Mayor of Kidal in 1999 but 
the result was later overturned by the Malian government. 
Intallou estimated that approximately 4,000 families are 
still living within the city of Kidal.  Many of those who 
have not fled the town, said Intallou, are single or elderly 
women or widows who do not have the ability to provide for 
themselves.  Intallou said resupply vehicles are no longer 
traveling to Kidal and that food within the town is growing 
increasingly scarce.  On June 18 Intallou's sister-in-law in 
Kidal slipped into a diabetic coma and died due to the 
absence of any doctors or medicine within the city. 
 
¶7.  Living conditions in encampments erected by families 
fleeing fighting between the Malian army and Tuareg rebels 
are reportedly no better.  Intallou said displaced 
populations are living in pockets scattered throughout the 
Kidal region.  She estimated that, in addition to the 4,000 
families still in the city of Kidal, there are another 2,000 
families camped around Anefif and Essouk, 2,000 more near 
Tessalit, 500 in the area of Bourghessa and Tinzawaten, and 
1,500 between Abeibera and Tin Essako.  Intallou estimated 
that each family consisted of around 5 individuals. 
 
¶8.  The town of Aguelhok has been empty since Tuareg rebels 
attacked the Malian military base there on May 21.  Intallou 
reported that the Mayor of Aguelhok and some of the men 
return to the town during the day, but sleep in desert 
encampments each night.  Women and children from Aguelhok are 
all living in encampments in the bush. 
 
¶9.  Intallou said transportation corridors to affected areas 
in northern Mali were open and that humanitarian aid could be 
delivered provided the shipments were coordinated with local 
government officials and fraction chiefs.  The Governor of 
Kidal recently told Embassy staff that the Malian government 
had intended to deliver a quantity of millet to displaced 
populations in northern Mali but was unable to do so due to 
transportation problems.  Intallou questioned whether the 
Malian government intended to send any assistance at all and 
noted that Tuaregs do not eat millet.  "It is amazing that 
they could think of sending millet to Kidal," said Intallou. 
She asked the U.S. to provide support to displaced 
populations in Kidal and said that northern populations still 
remember U.S. planes airlifting relief supplies to the 
northern town of Tessalit during the drought of 1973-1974. 
 
¶10.  Intallou also pointed out that the current trend toward 
direct budgetary support popular with European donors 
negatively impacts marginalized regions like Kidal.  Direct 
budgetary support was one of the key topics at the recent 
round table for international donors held in Bamako June 
12-13 (Ref. C).  Intallou said the provision of direct 
budgetary support to bodies like the Ministry of Territorial 
Administration undermines Mali's strategy of decentralization 
by giving government officials in Bamako control over 
resources intended for rural populations.  One demand 
articulated by Tuareg rebels is the authority to bypass 
government officials in Bamako in order to deal directly with 
international donors.  Intallou said that peace in northern 
Mali will be difficult to achieve without some kind of 
agreement regarding direct donor support for Kidal. 
 
¶11.  Comment: The Malian government has not indicated any 
intention to request humanitarian assistance for populations 
displaced by fighting in northern Mali.  As the ICRC 
discovered, assessing the living conditions of displaced 
populations in the region of Kidal is complicated by the 
remoteness of their encampments, the generally harsh 
environment, and continued instability.  ICRC representative 
Schmidt observed that local leaders of disaster-struck areas 
 
BAMAKO 00000610  003 OF 003 
 
 
often greet arriving members of the Red Cross with lists of 
the number of individuals impacted by any given humanitarian 
crisis.  Schmidt was surprised to find that officials in 
Kidal and Aguelhok were unable to produce information on the 
number of individuals requiring humanitarian assistance. 
When Mali requested relief for flood victims in central, 
southern and western Mali in September 2007, the Malian 
Government provided detailed lists that specified the number 
of individuals left homeless, the number of houses destroyed 
and the number of farm animals lost (Ref. D).  Such a 
detailed accounting of the humanitarian situation in Kidal is 
unlikely, meaning that any assessment of food, water and 
medicine shortages for those displaced by fighting in the 
north will continue to entail a fair amount of guesswork. 
MCCULLEY