High rates of malnutrition in the east

Between 10 percent and 30 percent of the population are suffering from acute malnutrition in many areas of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), says the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). Those most affected are women and children. The hardest-hit areas are Kiambi, Nyunzu, Manono, Pweto, Pepa, Kalemie and Malemba-Nkulu in Katanga Province; Bunia, Mahagi, Mambasa and surrounding villages in Orientale Province; Shabunda, Walungu, Ngweshe, Bunyakiri and the plain of Ruzizi in South Kivu; and Beni, Butembo, Rutshuru and Masisi in North Kivu Province. The high rates of malnutrition were attributable to massive displacement resulting from ongoing fighting in the region, Ad Spijkers, the FAO's representative in the DRC, told IRIN. Forced to flee at a moment's notice, people had been unable to carry away food, seeds or tools with them. Moreover, the displaced people had also become a huge burden on the areas to which they had fled. "Under these conditions, everyone - that is the displaced populations and the families in the areas they flee to - loses the capacity to feed themselves," he said. General insecurity in the region was uprooting people repeatedly as soldiers, rebels and militia groups looted villages and emptied homes of food, drugs, stocks of seeds, electric household appliances, tools, and clothing, he said. Malnutrition in eastern DRC, an area with enormous agricultural potential, was a new phenomenon, except for parts of South Kivu where the density of the population was significant and the soil not very fertile, said Spijkers. To overcome the problem, NGOs have established at least 100 nutrition centres, which are supported by the World Food Programme and the UN Children's Fund with donations of food and therapeutic milk. For over a year, FAO has been collaborating with 11 NGOs in the region, including Save the Children-UK, Medecins Sans Frontieres, Action contre le faim, Solidarités, and Caritas, supplying 90 nutrition centres with seeds and hoes. An FAO agronomist also does demonstrations for families accompanying their children to the centres on how to grow the food.