WFP appeals for 16,000 mt of food

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said on Tuesday it needed "immediate pledges" of 16,000 mt of cereals, pulses and vegetable oil to feed some 1.2 million people in Burundi until the end of June. It said a recent government and UN inter-agency Food and Crop Yields Assessment report indicated that the number of people needing relief aid during the first six months of the year had doubled those for the same period in 2002. "We are doing everything possible to respond to heightened food needs in the last couple of months, but we simply do not have enough resources to tackle the full magnitude of this crisis," Mustapha Darboe, the WFP's Country Director in Burundi, said. The lack of rain and continuing insecurity in the country are the causes of the food shortage. The assessment report, WFP said, "noted a decline in the nutritional situation of the population", with a marked increase in the number of children being admitted to therapeutic feeding centres in the Ruyigi, Ngozi and Kayanza provinces. Darboe said although WFP had received "major donations" of food from the US government and the EC, contributions from other donors were "urgently required". WFP said donations received so far would enable it to provide aid for another four weeks. WFP said late rains in October 2002, which had ended early in January 2003, had led to "significantly reduced harvests" throughout the country. "Insecurity is further exacerbating the situation, causing population displacement, with loss of life and income, particularly in eastern and southern Burundi," the agency reported. It said that in December 2002, it had appealed for 40,000 mt of relief food for the most vulnerable people until April. But due to insecurity, at least 54,000 people lacked relief food during the first half of February. "The current crisis is also threatening the next agricultural season," WFP added. It said it had recently begun distributing 9,356 mt of food, known as Seed Protection Rations (SPR), to some 851,520 food-insecure people so that they would not eat seeds meant for planting. At the same time, it said, the Food and Agricultural Organisation was providing farmers with seeds for planting in the next season. Over the next two weeks, WFP said, it would distribute the SPR in the most food-insecure provinces throughout the country, comprising Bubanza, Bujumbura Rural, Ruyigi, Muramvya, Gitega, Kayanza, Kirundo and Ngozi, under this programme, which was being financed by the EC's humanitarian aid office, ECHO. The Food and Yields Assessment team had identified these provinces as being amongst the most food insecure. "This initiative is key in helping food-insecure communities cope with an unpredictable future," Darboe said. [For more of the food situation in Africa and the world go to the WFP's "Africa Hunger Alert" webpage]