Tens of thousands regrouped in Bujumbura Rural

About 260,000 people in Bujumbura Rural province have been moved into some 30 sites due to the recent rise in rebel attacks on Bujumbura city and the outlying suburbs, according to a report by OCHA-Burundi. This puts the total number of displaced people in the province at 320,000 or nearly 75 percent of the population. The total number of displaced throughout the country is over 800,000 or 13 percent of the national population. The report said the UN and NGO community was working closely with the Burundian authorities to coordinate relief efforts, but some of the sites cannot be visited as they are only accessible by foot. The report concluded that the humanitarian situation at the moment was not considered disastrous, as long as the sites remained accessible and sufficient assistance could be delivered in a timely and effective manner. It warned however that this was the planting season and implications for the January harvest, already forecasted to be poor, could be very serious. WFP said food would probably be delivered to some of the sites by the end of the week. Spokeswoman Michele Quintaglie told IRIN some people had arrived with nothing but their clothes and these would be the priority cases. Further assessments will be carried out to ascertain needs, but the situation was not yet at crisis point. She expressed concern over people's access to their fields. "WFP is particularly concerned by the longterm implications of regroupment," she said, noting that Bujumbura Rural is a main supplier of food to the capital and that the city would eventually be affected if the situation persisted.