Mali's government on Tuesday announced a plan to distribute 40,000 tonnes of food in emergency aid to drought victims and those lacking food security.

A government statement obtained by AFP said that drought threatened the harvest for 2011-12 in the whole Sahel region. "To deal with this, 40,000 tonnes of food will be distributed to people in need," the text added.

According to the agriculture ministry, "more than 100 districts" of the 703 in the west African country will get this free food, consisting of millet and sorghum and also fodder for cattle in the most drought-hit regions.

In his New Year's address, President Amadou Toumani Toure put the cost of needed food aid at 19 billion CFA francs (29 million euros, $38 million).

Mali, Niger, Chad, Mauritania and Burkina Faso are Sahel desert nations threatened with famine in 2012, according to UN agencies and non-governmental organisations, with between five and seven million lives at stake.