WFP distributes seeds to 375,000 people

The World Food Programme (WFP) says it has completed in most of Burundi's seven provinces the distribution of 4,000 mt of food to some 375,000 people. In a report issued on Friday, it also said that a in joint assessment mission to a refugee camp in Rugombo commune, Cibitoke province, WFP and UNHCR found residents to be largely dependent on food aid. The same teams, it said, carried out rapid assessment in the provinces of Kayanza, Makamba and Rutana and reported storm damage to maize, beans, sweet potatoes, cassava and bananas. However, in Ngozi province, where the team carried out an in-depth assessment on food security, it reported that if the current good rainfall continues the area should experience improved harvests. Food distributions have been made in other vulnerable areas: 262 mt of food has gone to 37,211 victims of crop failures in Kayanza Province, and to feeding centres for malnourished people in Bujumbura Mairie and Bujumbura Rural. WFP said it distributed 40 mt of food to 2,331 refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo in Bujumbura Mairie and returnees from Tanzania in Ngozi. In addition, WFP authorised the dispatch of 338 mt of food to 26,128 vulnerable persons; among them orphans, elders, physically and mentally handicapped, street children, chronically ill persons, deaf/mute children and the blind. The distribution is being supervised by social centres.