Food security situation precarious

An FAO report on the food security situation in DRC has highlighted a precarious state of affairs, noting that there are a total 1,502,000 displaced people and 317,612 refugees in the country. It said humanitarian assistance to the displaced people was even more difficult to organise than the assistance to refugees. Many of the displaced people are in forests and highly inaccessible areas. In Maniema province, 68 percent of the population was displaced at the onset of war in August 1998. There are currently some 100,000 people are living a “primitive life” in the forest, where agricultural production is practically impossible as there are no tools, the report stated. In the Kivus, one of the main problems was supplying the towns, due to growing insecurity. Prices in the towns were rising to an unbearable level, it said. The FAO also expressed concern over the safety of some foodstuffs, such as vegetables in Kinshasa, which had high levels of lead, and the use of bromide by bakers in Lubumbashi to encourage the yeast to rise.