WFP launches appeal for civilian victims of violence

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) launched an appeal on Wednesday for US $38 million to provide food for approximately 500,000 war-affected people in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). In a statement, WFP said it required 46,000 mt of food for six months to feed 483,000 people "who are the most vulnerable of those caught up in the violence". Eastern DRC, specifically Bunia, the main town of Ituri District, has been embroiled in violence since 7 May when Ugandan soldiers withdrew from the town. WFP said that up to 300,000 people were reported to have been displaced by the latest clashes in Bunia, and that 60,000 had arrived in Beni, about 150 km south of Bunia. WFP said armed conflict in the country in the past five years had been catastrophic for civilians in the region. "People have been subject to acts of extreme brutality and human rights violations at the hands of various militia groups, with torture, lootings, rape and random killings a feature of daily life," the agency reported. "Millions of people have been displaced, leaving behind all their belongings; in many areas agricultural production has been brought to a standstill." WFP quoted a recent survey conducted by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, which said that at least 64 percent of the population in eastern DRC had suffered from food shortages. "Other surveys indicate that the levels of global malnutrition among children under the age of five vary between 15 and 30 percent, levels well above what is considered an emergency," WFP said. It added that its staff had visited a local hospital in Walungu, South Kivu, and found children showing symptoms of severe malnutrition. "We saw wards filled with emaciated babies and young children with distended stomachs, stick-like limbs and whose hair had turned yellow," Felix Bamezon, WFP's country director in the DRC, said. "These children are slowly dying of starvation. We cannot simply stand by and let it happen," he said. The WFP emergency operation will target the new arrivals in Beni. The agency said it was already feeding 1.4 million people across country. "Our funding situation simply does not allow us to assist the entire population," Bamezon said. "We have no alternative but to concentrate on the most vulnerable."