Food shortage looming, FAO official says

A UN official said on Friday that widespread armed banditry in key farming areas had increased the risk of severe food shortages in the north of the Central African Republic (CAR). "I am not saying there is famine in the country," Etienne Ngounio, assistant programme officer at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said on Friday, but "there are insecure zones where people cannot farm and do not have seed." The affected areas are normally considered the country's breadbaskets. They include the prefectures of Ouham, Ouham Pende, Ouaka, Nana-Gribizi and Kemo. Some of these areas were strongholds of President François Bozizé when he seized power in March 2003, but armed groups continue to roam the area. The government confirmed that a food crisis might be looming. "Most farmers in the north have abandoned their farms because of fighting and the escalation of armed banditry during the three past years," Etienne M’Peco, the director of planning at the Ministry of Agriculture, said on Thursday. The spokeswoman for the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees, Jennifer Pagonis, said in Geneva on Monday that "general lawlessness has caused some 10,000 people to flee north to Chad since June, joining another 30,000 CAR refugees who were already there". FAO did not provide any data on food production or nutrition levels in the CAR, but Ngounio said a joint UN mission recently visited affected areas and found the situation there "desperate". "Farmers are selling off their tools and moving to neighbouring Chad to escape starvation," he said. Heavy rains that hit the south of the CAR in the prefectures of Ouaka, M'Bomou, Haut M'Bomou and Lobaye in August have caused a further reduction in food production in the county. Ngounio said the UN Development Programme (UNDP) had launched a new international appeal for aid to avert a food crisis in the CAR, but he would not disclose how much money the organisation is requesting. A previous UNDP appeal raised 10 percent of the total amount requested. "We used the money we got to assist a few farmers in the affected zones, but I must say the assistance did not reach many of the people in need," Ngounio said.