Facts on Mali
-Population: 11 million
-Average annual income: $210
-Life expectancy: 52 years
-67% of women are illiterate
-1 in 7 babies die before their 1st birthday
-73% of people live on less than $1 a day

Poverty & Conflict
The West African state of Mali is one of the poorest countries in the world.

Although 65% of the country is barren desert or semi-desert, Mali is normally self-sufficient in food production thanks to the fertile Niger river basin. However, food security is recurrently threatened by droughts. Eighty percent of Malians rely on the land for their livelihood.

Islamic Relief in Mali
Islamic Relief has a field office in Bamako, Mali and teams from Islamic Relief's Mali office were amongst the first to reach some of the worst affected regions in Niger and Northern Mali in the ongoing food crisis in the region.

An Islamic Relief office has been set up in Niamey, the capital of Niger which will work with the Mali office to tackle the food crisis. Islamic Relief has already pledged an initial $1.6 million to the emergency, and is working in partnership with other NGOs and institutions.

In Mali, Islamic Relief also distributed 95 tons of food aid in the Gourma Rharous (Northern Mali) district as an emergency intervention. The distribution covered over 5 villages, with a total of over 30,000 beneficiaries.