European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 04, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse Wednesday september 4, 1985 the stars and stripes Page 7 is Woholo by Don tale a typical refugee Home in Cao Mali. The family s few belongings and utensils lie on the Bare ground while wooden Sticks bold up the roof of Burlap. Survival in the Sahara by Don Tate staff writer Gao Mali from the Lith floor of the hotel do i Ami tic in the capital City of Bamako overlooking the swimming Pool and the gleaming niger River just beyond a newly arrived observer re marked How Charm my. Where s the famine from that Saniti cd height a songwriter might be moved to write Moon Over Mali until he came Down to Earth. A five minute stroll into Bamako and Romance begins to fade. The presence of open sewers filth lepers swarming flies and people sleeping in the streets assault the few Hundred Miles northward into the drought wracked desert however and some of the reality of Africa s vast famine Belt where millions of people die like flies while the flies survive staggers the mind. Even Bamako seems like inc Good life compared to what passes for life in the refugee bloated surrounded City of Gao. Thousand year old Gao was once a City of Kings a great trading Center where caravans of 10,000 camels passed through on their Way out of the Sahara. Today the words poor and hard times seem inadequate to describe conditions in that stench Ridden crumbling poor could live like Kings on our poor s Gar Bage was the Way an american Relief worker put it. Mai., in Northwest Africa at the Southern Edge of the Sahara is the land of the legendary Timbuktu sometimes called the Back of beyond the end of the Earth. But if Tim Bucu is the end then Gao and even remoter regions seem to have gone Over the Edge. Once known As the French Sudan Mali is a country of Friendly people mostly moslem with a 90-percent illiteracy rate $120 per year capita income Gigli birth and death rates a life expectancy of 45 a cars and seemingly every disease known to Mankind. Moreover it is one of those countries righting a War of survival against a foe far More menacing than any desert army. For years the Sahara desert has mercilessly advanced southward with blowing Sand that wipes out roads and covers cities. All the horses of the desert apocalypse drought famine disease and Leath have been Riding hard driving starving thousands before it killing off people Ani Mals and oases in its path turning once Green liable areas into desert Boneyard. Twenty years ago residents say there were Grassy areas Many Trees giraffes monkeys even Lions around Gao. Crocodiles and hippos abounded in the niger River. Sixteen years ago the Rains started falling less and less. The last two years were the worst of All. Rain grew rarer than a belly filling meal. The animals Are virtually gone now along with most of the greenery snarl and Flics scorpions Blister beetles and hairy Camel spiders bigger than a human hand dominate. Even the hardiest of the Hardy hundreds of thousands of proud turban Clad fiercely Independent nomads always Able to survive in the desert on next to nothing were reduced to eating roots and leaves off the Trees. Spirits crushed they finally reluctantly fled the Only places they have Ever lived. Their oases and water holes have dried up their herds of goats and sheep arc dead their camels and donkeys have turned to Sand blown skeletons. This year massive International food Aid much of it from the United states has slowed the Advance of fam Ine and the first decent Rains in years have managed to at least partially hold the line against the Sahara. But All have their fingers crossed and Pray for More rain. Barbara Presgrove an official with the . Mission in Mali called american and other International Aid this year in Mali a Success Story but quickly tempered the remark with another. It s not like we solved the problem. We helped Dur ing the emergency for a . Aid official said the americans had donated 60,300 tons of Grain to Mali in direct govern mint to govern mint Aid in 1985, in a drought Relief program totalling some $40 million. All told americans have contributed More than is billion already this year to help feed starving people across Africa. The soviets Are also in Mali a socialist country until a few years ago giving guns not Grain. "1 think the people arc disappointed in the russians and disillusioned with socialism said the official. It has t worked Here or elsewhere in these countries. Across Africa people arc re trenching from the United states gave More than food. Just Over three months ago after the malian Only usable ferry broke Down it rushed in a team of american army combat engineers to get Grain across the niger River to starving thousands with a quickly erected boat powered 88-foot raft. More than 1,500 trips carrying some 14.000 tons of Grain have been made across the niger. It prevented a disaster said Lew Mael a drought Relief official with the . Embassy thousands could have starved. The malian Sec that. It s real not theoretical and they arc but inc fingers arc still crossed. Jean Marc Fox of the International red Cross operating 160 feeding centers in the Gao Region of Mali alone two thirds the size of France said in april May and june things were very bad. In june we were operating 180 feeding centers. About 60,000 children continued on pages 8/9
