UN agencies act to distribute food, seeds in northwest

Responding to an appeal by local authorities, UN agencies World Food Programme (WFP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) are due to distribute food and seeds to residents of Burundi's northwestern province of Cibitoke. The provincial director for agriculture and livestock services in Cibitoke Province, Joseph Gahungu, told IRIN on Friday that some 6,000 residents of Rukana 1 and Rukana 2, about eight kilometres west of Cibitoke town, were very hungry following low crop yields due to poor rains from September to November 2003. "Rukana residents now require urgent relief aid, not only food aid but also seeds to prepare for the current planting season," he said. "Even if rains have resumed, they have nothing to plant and risk a famine if nothing is done," he said. WFP Information Assistant Isidore Nteturuye said a team visited Cibitoke from 1 to 5 March to assess the situation. FAO Information Officer Baudelaire Ndayishimiye said that following a request from the administrator of Rugombo Commune, the agency would distribute seeds within two weeks. The administrator of Rugombo, Onesphore Nduwumwami, said people were so desperate that they could no longer work in their gardens fulltime. "They only work two days per week in their gardens and reserve the remaining days for paid labour in other areas of the province," he said. Nduwumwami said he had appealed to the WFP for food aid for residents in 12 out of 17 sectors in the commune. He had also appealed to the FAO to provide seeds for 37,000 people in 12 sectors of the commune. Nteturuye said that during its assessment, the WFP team had found that 1,770 families were in need of food aid. However, the official did not indicate when the food distribution would begin. The WFP team also found that Rukana 1 and Rukana 2 and displaced people of Munyika, in Rugombo Commune, were in need of food aid, Nteturuye said. Ndayishimiye also said the FAO had received an appeal for seeds from Rugombo, Mugongo-Manga, Mwaro and Bururi areas, which were either badly affected by poor rainfall or storms. The FAO had also early in March distributed 33 mt of beans, 10 mt of soya beans and 1,400 hoes to destitute people throughout Cibitoke province. Beneficiaries included pygmy families, returnees and victims of a storm at Buganda, another commune of Cibitoke. Gahungu said Rukana residents did not benefit from this aid. Maize and beans are mainly grown in the Rukana areas, and are often supplied to other regions. The shortage of maize has led to sharp price increases in local markets.