December 2, 2002
The UN World Food Programme today launched an urgent appeal for food aid donations ahead of an alarming food shortage expected in Burundi this month. A two-month delay in rains plus a poor harvest from the previous growing season, could cause the number of people needing relief food to double -- from 580,000 to 1.2 million -- by as early as this month.
WFP urgently needs 40,000 metric tons of food, valued a US$19 million, to help feed more than a million Burundians until the main harvest in April 2003. The agency is also trying to cope with the current influx of Congolese refugees, which has reached about 14,000 people.
"The situation has become alarming, and the international community needs to step forward urgently to help avoid a possible hunger crisis," said Mustapha Darboe, WFP Country Director and Representative in Burundi.
A current outbreak of malaria, which is endemic to Burundi during the rainy season, could also prey on a hungry, weakened population. In 2000, an estimated 600,000 people were caught up in a malaria epidemic while thousands of other people were fighting the effects of a severe drought.
The precarious food situation will be further exacerbated if fighting - which is causing major population displacement - and refugee influxes intensify. The provinces of Ruyigi, Gitega, Bubanza Muramvya and Bujumbura rural have already been severely affected by fighting.
Last month, the country's Early Warning Task Force, comprising WFP, FAO, UNICEF, OCHA, and the Ministry of Agriculture (MINAGRI) in collaboration with NGOs, reported that the late arrival of rains for the harvest expected in December, could negatively affect crop yields. Poor rains have also caused the water table to be perilously low in swamplands, which are cultivated now for the harvest in April 2003.
A reduction in food production will put additional pressure on available food aid resources, which are already overstretched and for which shortages are expected to start this month if donor contributions are not quickly mobilised.
"We are starting to distribute food aid to the worst affected areas early enough to contain the crisis, but if we don't get more pledges quickly, relief stocks will run out and the situation will deteriorate rapidly," said Darboe. "Right now we can only provide food to the most urgent cases."
Food aid resources are also needed to strengthen food-for-work activities in the Northern provinces, which will help contain the crisis. These projects will provide vulnerable groups with badly-needed food aid in exchange for doing small works projects, such as the preparation of fields for cultivation, prevention of soil erosion, rehabilitation of swaps and reforestation. In the Southern provinces, where access is difficult due to insecurity, WFP will pre-position food in strategic locations to ensure a timely response.
In addition, WFP continues to feed some 14,000 refugees who have fled the ongoing insecurity in Uvira, DRC. Further donor support is needed to maintain the current number of people, and to prepare for greater influxes, which could reach 40,000 people.
Over previous months, WFP has managed to distribute relief food, in tandem with seeds, as a "seed protection" ration. Designed to ward against the consumption of seeds by hungry households, rations were given to almost half a million people (100,000 households). Ninety percent of the target was reached, despite supply gaps and insecurity-related delays. The ECHO-financed programme, with seeds distributed by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), is helping boost the agricultural yields amongst vulnerable populations.
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