4,000 families in Kabezi in need of food

Just over 4,000 families (about 20,000 people) in Kabezi and two other locales in this commune of Bujumbura Rural Province are in need of food following fighting that broke out in the area on 22 June between Hutu rebels and government troops, the information officer for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Burundi told IRIN on Thursday.

"They have received no water or non-food items," Nicholas McGowan said.

Quoting government figures, he said some 2,320 of the needy households were in Kabezi, 1,350 in Ramba and 758 in Mutumba. Staff of the United Nations Children's Fund had visited the area on Thursday afternoon to evaluate water and food needs, McGowan said.

The Italian NGO Gruppo di Volontariato Civil would be distributing 2,000 packets of biscuits to children in the next two days. The NGO, which would also concern itself with health issues, already had a nutrition centre in Kabezi, he added.

The privately owned Radio publique africain on Wednesday quoted Emmanuel Kabaragi, the administrator of Kabezi, as saying one person had died of typhus, and that "a good number of others" were suffering from malaria and diarrhoea.

Because most schools were closed due to a teacher's strike, most of them were being used as shelter for the victims, Kabaragi said. If they reopened those sheltering there would have to leave every morning to allow for teaching activities.

"The head of OCHA Burundi, Daniel Augstburger, will undertake a mission to assess the situation and ensure adequate relief coordination mechanisms are in place," McGowan said.