War and economic crisis impact food security

The war-induced massive displacement of farming families in Katanga has resulted in a marked decrease in the province's food production, which has in turn impacted the nutritional and food security status of its population, an OCHA report said. The report said there were 760,076 mt of food supplies available in Katanga in 1999, whereas the province's annual food needs were estimated at 1.1 million mt. Food imports, mainly from
southern African countries, covered half of the food deficit, but a five-fold increase in the price of main food products in Lubumbashi and large-scale lay-offs by the state-owned mining company, Gecamines, aggravated the population's food security problems, it stated. The socio-economic crisis has increased people's dependency on food of low nutritional value, and many were eating only one meal a day, the report added.