UN agency steps up efforts to feed thousands of displaced civilians

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) announced on Friday that it was setting up a temporary camp at Kiriri, to the east of the capital, Bujumbura, to feed some 25,000 people displaced by recent fighting around the city. "But the lack of security means we still can't reach thousands of people – many of whom have been repeatedly displaced by fighting," Mustapha Darboe, WFP country director for Burundi, said. "They depend on food aid for survival." The agency reported that it was planning to use the period of "relative calm" in the capital to step up its provision of food aid to thousands of people who have fled fighting between government and rebel troops. Rebels loyal to Agathon Rwasa, leader of a faction of the Forces nationales de liberation (FNL) movement, staged a series of attacks on the capital's southern suburbs from 7 to 13 July, causing the deaths of some 325 fighters, according to the Burundian army, and displacing tens of thousands of civilians. WFP said that the displaced at Kiriri, who are mainly from Kavumu and Muyira areas in the hills east of the city, would also receive seven-day food rations comprising maize, beans and vegetable oil. It said that over the last 10 days, it has provided food to more that 50,000 displaced who fled their homes during the fighting. WFP said thousands of people had sought refuge at five sites in the city centre - Musee Vivant, Petit Seminaire, Eglise Pentecote, Monument de l'Unite, and Mont Sion. "Many of them have now started to return home, but due to the precarious security situation, WFP is having to operate with a reduced staff," the agency said. On Thursday, WFP started feeding some 5,000 people at a newly established site in Gihosha District. The agency said another NGO, CARE, was working with it to distribute seven-day rations. It said medical NGOs Medecins Sans Frontieres-Belgium, Catholic Relief Services and the International Committee of the Red Cross were distributing non-food items. WFP said the security situation on Tuesday enabled its staff to reach beneficiaries outside the city centre for the first time since the fighting began. In Kora, east of the capital, some 160 mt of relief food was distributed to some 30,000 women who had previously been cut off by the fighting, WFP reported. One-week rations were also being distributed to new arrivals. However, WFP reported that it could not access thousands of people in the south and east of the country who have been cut off from food aid because of the fighting around Bujumbura. "Last week, continuing insecurity prevented WFP trucks from getting to nearly 250,000 people who rely on food aid in Rutana, Ruyigi and Gitega provinces, as well as in more distant parts of Bujumbura Rural province," the agency said. It said the people had been facing severe food shortages for at least six months because of drought and fighting, and that it hoped to reach Rutana next week.