Nairobi, Nov. 27 -- Mali once had it good. Mansa Musa, the great ninth mansa of the Mali Empire, and considered the world's richest man ever, has roots there. It was West Africa's second largest exporter of gold after Ghana.

The good times look so far away. There has been a food crisis since 2016. And to compound its situation, terrorist attacks have multiplied in the centre of the country, in the Mopti region. With the heavy toll of civilian and military victims and damage to farmers' fields, it has been plunged into food insecurity. In Macina and Dogofry, the damage caused by this crisis is enormous, even if the causes are not the same.

In Dogofry, in the commune of Niono, in early January 2021, several fields were burnt by terrorists...