ICRC supplies food, seeds to families in Kindu

A distribution of 300 mt of food supplies and seeds for 10,000 families in precarious nutritional condition due to continuing hostilities was completed on Friday by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in the eastern city of Kindu, Maniema Province, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. "Owing to recent fighting in Maniema Province, the population of Kindu had been trapped within a security perimeter established around the city," the ICRC reported on Friday. "This security measure effectively prohibited access to the fields of the people of Kindu, estimated to be between 140,000 and 190,000 inhabitants and internally displaced persons from other locations, and made access to food as well as commercial activity increasingly difficult." Faced with a generalised deterioration in nutritional health among the population, and children in particular, the ICRC opted for this integrated intervention of food supplies and seeds to benefit 6,000 families in the communes of Mikelenge et Kassuku on the western bank of the Congo river, and 4,000 households in the commune of Alunguli on the eastern bank. Each household received a kit containing 13 kg of improved groundnut, corn, and bean seeds, as well as a hoe to cultivate fields within an established security perimeter. In order to ensure that recipients did not eat the seeds, 15 kg of food supplies consisting of rice and beans were also distributed to the beneficiaries. The entire operation took place over five days with the use of Hercules C-130 and DC-3 aircraft. ICRC said that the success of this operation was also due to the close collaboration of volunteers from the local Red Cross chapter of Kindu.