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Deliveries of food and non-food items began on Tuesday to some 33,790 displaced people in Ruyigi, eastern Burundi, after government cleared humanitarian bodies to start the operation, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Burundi has reported.
The World Food Program, which spearheaded the effort with deliveries to the district of Nyabitsinda, said it would continue deliveries on Wednesday to Kinynya and Muhwazi. A reports assistant at WFP Burundi, Isidore Npeturuye, told IRIN each family was being given 15 days rations consisting of 279 mt of maize, pulses and cooking oil. In another 15 days, a second distribution will be made if the displaced fail to return to their homes.
The humanitarian community had earlier been discussing with the government the possibility of creating humanitarian corridors for the delivery of food, non-food items, nutrition, and water and sanitation aid. The government had restricted access to the areas because of fighting between soldiers and dissidents. The displaced persons fled their homes in late April and, till now, had not received any aid.
The Forces pour la defense de la democratie and Forces nationales de liberation have been the most active of the Hutu rebel groups seeking to overturn the seven-month-old transitional government of Hutus and Tutsis.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
