Crisis in Mali might spread, UN warns

GENEVA -- A crisis of huge proportions is brewing in Mali that could spread throughout the nine-nation Sahel region of northern Africa and beyond due to insufficient humanitarian aid for millions of people, top UN and U.S. officials said Friday.

A recent coup in Mali emboldened rebels to seize the country's north. Islamist and other insurgent factions have since been fighting each other as they try to keep hold of northern Mali. The violence, and the imposition of harsh Islamic law in some areas, has forced many residents to flee their homes.

The officials warned that widespread hunger, displacement, political unrest and other factors in Mali are putting countless lives at risk -- and setting the stage for a global headache.

"There is a very serious threat for peace and security, not only for the whole region but, in my opinion, with global implications," UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres told reporters in Geneva.

Guterres appeared at a news conference beside U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Anne Richard, who oversees population, refugees and migration. They had just returned from a trip to visit Malian refugees in Burkina Faso.

Guterres said 260,000 Malian refugees have fled to neighboring Mauritania, Niger and Burkina Faso, which have kept their borders open and shared their food supplies despite the dire hunger crisis they face within their own nations.

The UN humanitarian office says 18 million people already face severe hunger and malnutrition in the Sahel region. In Mali, many of those in need are beyond the reach of aid workers, the two officials said.

"The United States is very concerned about the crisis, and we're also concerned that there's not sufficient resources going to it," said Richard, adding the United States has contributed $355 million of aid and food to countries in the Sahel.

The crisis in Mali could become conflated with the unrest in Sudan-South Sudan, Somalia and even Yemen, Guterres said.

"So if proper humanitarian assistance is not provided, and if a political solution is not found, the risk of this conflict to go far beyond Mali is, in my opinion, enormous," Guterres said.