The Foreign Service Journal, March 2013

30 MARCH 2013 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL but because they are sick and hungry. Yet most relief operations still go under- funded, as donors become increasingly fatigued with the growing number of crises in the world. Over the years, the international community has learned many painful lessons about dealing with humanitarian crises. But it does not apply those lessons nearly as well as it should. In particu- lar, although donors generally respond generously to an initial emergency, they fall short in terms of funding the care and maintenance of the displaced and refu- gees over the long run. And their record is even worse when it comes to crisis preparedness and disaster prevention. As I look across Africa, I see more refu- gees and internally displaced populations than ever. Some of these camps have already existed for more than a decade. Is there really no way to help their occu- pants return home safely and reduce the chances others will take their places? In Burkina Faso and elsewhere, USAID and other relief agencies have been making a valiant effort to care for tens of thousands of Malian refugees, despite chronic underfunding. Their caseload of Malian refugees is increasing rapidly, as an international military intervention to oust the radical Islamists now in control of northern Mali advances. To paraphrase the old cliché, an ounce of prevention is truly worth a pound of emergency response. Now is the time to prepare for the humanitarian consequences of a full-scale military intervention in northern Mali—and future upheavals elsewhere in Africa. Mark G. Wentling, a retired USAID Senior Foreign Service of- ficer currently working in Burkina Faso, is completing Africa’s Embrace , a novel about the practical and mysterious challenges of living in Africa during the early 1970s. Is there really no way to help the occupants of these refugee camps return home safely—and reduce the chances others will take their places? When I returned to my office in Ouagadougou, it was with the same heavy heart I’ve felt many times before in such situ- ations. I first experienced it as USAID mission director in Dar es Salaam from 1993 to 1994, when I visited dozens of similar sites set up for Somalis. Then, as USAID mission director in Tanzania from 1994 to 1996, I observed hundreds of thousands of Rwandans who were packed into some of the biggest refugee camps in history. Speaking as someone who has spent more than 40 years living and working in Africa—first as a Peace Corps Volunteer, then a Foreign Service officer, and now a retiree—I admire the fortitude of all refugees and internally displaced persons who have made these exhausting and traumatizing treks. I certainly could not be that strong were a similar disaster to befall me. What I find most heartbreaking is the suffering of the children caught up in these situations. I’ve heard far too many young people cry at night, not only out of fear and loneliness, Photo courtesy of Mark Wentling Mark Wentling, at right here and on p. 29 in the blue striped shirt, talks with leaders of the Mentao Refugee Camp in Burkina Faso in October 2012. He listens to their stories about leaving Mali and their views on conditions in the camp, which is located 200 kilometers north of Ouagadougou.