About 300,000 Burundians affected by floods since November 2006 are due to receive food from the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and seeds from the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), a WFP official has said.
"We aim to prepare people for the next harvest season and inject food relief to affected zones in the north and northeast of Burundi," Guillaume Foliot, WFP programme officer, said on Wednesday.
He said the agency would provide the aid between 15 February and 15 March, under its seed protection ration (SPR) framework. WFP, he added, distributes food in concert with FAO distributing seeds so that the farming families who receive the seeds won't eat them.
Heavy rains have damaged crops and destroyed infrastructure in several regions since November 2006, prompting the government to set up a national solidarity fund to support flood-displaced people in the provinces of Muyinga, Kirundo, Cankuzo, Karuzi, Kayanza, Ngozi and Muyinga.
In addition to the WFP, the government, the Burundi National Red Cross Society and other relief agencies have also provided food and non-food aid to the flood-affected people.
The Red Cross had "already assisted 844 of the 1,187 flood-displaced at Gatumba in Bujumbura Rural", said Venerand Nzigamasabo, the officer in charge of rescuing and managing catastrophes at Red Cross Burundi.
Nzigamasabo said the non-food aid comprised buckets, blankets, mosquito nets, soap, clothes and chemicals for purifying water and disinfecting water sources. The Red Cross has also carried out hygiene education campaigns in the affected areas.
In the northwestern province of Cibitoke, Red Cross Burundi has assisted 300 households by distributing beans and vegetables, and it is scheduled to help a similar number in the northeastern province of Ruyigi.
Meanwhile, in a joint statement last week, the WFP and relief agencies in Burundi said they were having difficulties targeting those in need of urgent relief. They warned that two million people affected by recent floods in the country required urgent aid until June to avert a food crisis.
The agencies' statement followed last week’s launch of the Consolidated Appeals Processes (CAP) in which the UN and agencies sought US$132 million to support their work in Burundi in 2007.
In an assessment in January 2007, the WFP and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) found that heavy rains and floods had destroyed 50-80 percent of the November harvest and much of the January harvest of beans, sweet potatoes, maize, sorghum and rice across large parts of the country.
The WFP country director Gerard van Dijk warned of devastating consequences if urgent help was not brought to the needy.
"Given how long it takes to get food aid and other assistance to Burundi, we have no time to waste; we need international support now in order to help people until June," he said.
The January assessment established that the vulnerable people had resorted to survival tactics such as having one meal a day and opting for drought-resistant food such as cassava or bitter bananas.
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