Malnutrition down in Bubanza

A recent nutrition survey carried out in Bubanza province by the NGO Children’s Aid Direct revealed that the global malnutrition rate had fallen to 9.7 percent, compared with 15.6 percent when the last survey was done six months ago, the latest OCHA-Burundi humanitarian situation report said. The severe malnutrition rate was now 3.7 percent, down from 7.1 percent six months ago, the report added. However, the mortality rate for children under five years of age was found to have increased slightly, from 4.4 to 4.5 per 10,000 per day, it said, adding that UNICEF was in the process of devising a system to improve analysis of such contradictory data. Meanwhile, an OCHA-led inter-agency mission that recently visited the eastern Rugazi and Musigati communes of Bubanza reported that newly displaced people continued to arrive into the area’s displaced sites from the Kibira forest and neighbouring Muramvya province. The new arrivals were in need of food and non-food assistance, the report said.