Mr. Chair, this will be 10 minutes of torture for everyone who is listening to my wonderful voice this evening.
Tonight, we are exploring the issue of Mali. The situation in Mali and in the Sahel region is far from rosy right now. After over 20 years of democracy, Mali is currently in a state of serious instability. As a Canadian and a member of this House, I am wondering about what Canada is doing to help the people of Mali.
Canada has a longstanding tradition of being a world leader when it comes to African countries, whether through its presence on the ground, its network of embassies or its NGOs, although that tradition now seems to have come to an end. In fact, Canadians have slowly been withdrawing from their participation in Africa.
From its new foreign policy to its international development assistance policy, this government is setting a dangerous precedent. It is important to be careful about such precedents since critics of our traditional allies are speaking out more and more. They are watching Canada and are confused about what is happening.
The changes are so draconian that the Minister of International Cooperation had to create a new oath for his department's employees in order to silence them about what seems to be a makeshift policy, as mentioned by many of my colleagues during this debate. The government seems to view the UN as more of a parasite than a necessary tool.
Around the time of the second world war, Canada was one of the founding members of the UN because, at the time, we believed that an organization made up of all the nations was necessary to bring peace to the world and that, together, we were—and still are—capable of preventing poverty and enhancing respect for human rights throughout the world. In short, we believed that the nations could help one another.
The French presence in Mali seems to have proved its mettle by driving back extremist and radical troops, almost without any real combat. In fact, France was able to drive back rebel groups in northern Mali. We are happy about that and we hope that Mali will be able to return to the democratic state it has enjoyed for the past 20 years as quickly as possible and that, above all, it is able to restore constitutional order. It is very important to mention that.
However, it seems that these troops have entrenched themselves in neighbouring countries, which does not bode well for the situation in a region that is already weakened by a major humanitarian crisis.
I would like to talk about some of my concerns. From Senegal in the west to Somalia in the east, the Sahel region has become a breeding ground for extremist and radical groups. Given the instability in Mali, we should be concerned about the surrounding countries. Niger appears to have a fragile balance, and according to some analysts, Mauritania could also be the next target of Salafist and Wahhabi groups.
We must therefore consider the serious humanitarian crisis that Mali is experiencing, but we must also look at a long-term solution. The same goes for the Sahel region. United Nations agencies and their humanitarian partners have launched a consolidated appeal for 2013. We are talking about 2013, not previous years.
About $1.5 billion will be needed to help the millions of people affected by the food crisis in the Sahel region. In Mali alone, UN agencies estimate that a consolidated appeal for $370 million will be needed for 2013. Once again, we are talking about 2013, not the previous years that government members keep mentioning.
We are not denying the fact that Canada has always been a strong partner to Mali, but right now, Canada has made a very weak contribution in response to the growing demand resulting from this terrible situation. I think we can agree that $13 million out of $1.5 billion is a rather small amount. I will let you do the math.
Access and security are some of the priorities. Although the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has noted an improvement, supplies of food and other basics in the north remain very unstable, and food insecurity could get worse in this zone.
Access to food is just one example of something the Government of Canada could try to focus on.
According to the World Food Programme, over 585,000 people are at risk of suffering from food insecurity. So, we are not talking about participating in an armed conflict or sending troops, but about protecting people against famine. These numbers are constantly increasing.
A number of players in the field are worried about the disruption of market supply in the north. The humanitarian community is asking for the co-operation of Malian authorities to facilitate the movement of commodities and humanitarian assistance to the north. Moreover, several explosions of mines in the Mopti region, along the main roads leading to the north, are threatening civilians and could block relief operations.
On October 12, the Security Council had already adopted resolution 2071 dealing with cases of abuse, sexual violence, human rights violations and, above all, the recruiting of child soldiers in northern Mali. Many concerns continue to be voiced in Mali regarding the protection of human rights, after some organizations reported summary executions and abuse. Ethnic-based reprisals targeted civilians in certain areas formerly controlled by armed groups.
Moreover, some people living in the north are said to have fled, for fear of reprisals. Amnesty International said that the Malian army arrested and executed more than 20 civilians in the north. We see an opportunity for Canada to provide monitoring and training to avoid this kind of abuse of human rights violations. This could be done through AFISMA, the mission led by the African Union. In fact, it is possible to contribute to this mission but, as we mentioned a number of times, Canada refuses to do so.
As for Human Rights Watch, it has also accused the Malian army of summarily executing at least 13 alleged pro-Islamists, but also armed groups of executing at least seven Malian soldiers. Consequently, this organization asked at the end of January that international observers be sent to Mali.
I must also mention the issue of child soldiers. Several NGOs in Mali have reported that children are forced to join armed groups. Under the Rome Statute, the recruiting of children under the age of 15 by armed groups is a war crime. This crime has terrible consequences for all populations, for children and for the families. I think these abuses deserve special attention and action, by Canada in particular.
Another troubling fact: according to CARE International, a specific service for the protection of women and children has not been established. For its part, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs points out the urgent need to strengthen response capacity, primarily in order to educate people about the danger posed by mines, to provide psychosocial support and to address gender-based violence.
Current resources are not enough to provide minimal prevention and response. As my colleague from Laurier—Sainte-Marie stated, prevention is important. She also said that the government does not seem to know what prevention is.
At present, no child welfare project has received funding. Thus, not even Canada has provided funding or created a project to protect children. We have to take action, and Canada should be a leader in that area. Canada must do more than just closely monitor these problems. It is fine for the Minister of International Cooperation to go to Burkina Faso. However, we have to take action, not just proclaim our good intentions.
I would also like to quickly address the question of the Sahel and the long-term future of Mali. We have 21 embassies in Africa, a continent of 53 countries.
My time has expired and I have only managed to say part of what I had to say. I will now take questions.
