Gloomy WFP predictions on malnutrition

The WFP on Friday made an “urgent appeal” for $112 million for its relief operations to feed more than two million people in the DRC. According to WFP, the number of Congolese displaced from their homes and consequently cut off from their means of survival has shot up from 750,000 early last year to two million at the moment. While admitting that statistics were difficult to confirm because of insecurity and limited humanitarian access, WFP said officials estimated that more than half of infant mortality in the country was associated with malnutrition. Recent surveys conducted by NGOs showed that up to 21 per cent of the population in the eastern province of North-Kivu was suffering from severe malnutrition, a UN press release stated. “The numbers of people who need WFP assistance has nearly tripled over the past year,” said Kees Tuinenburg, WFP representative in Kinshasa. “Stepped-up relief in the DRC is crucial. If we don’t get more food in now, there is a danger that malnutrition could spiral out of control. ”In addition, the flow of refugees entering the DRC from Angola is expected to increase during the next few months. Intensified civil war in Angola has forced tens of thousands of civilians into the southern DRC provinces of Bas Congo, Bandundu and Katanga in search of food and refuge, WFP stated. At the present rate of influx, the number of these Angolan refugees was expected to rise from 60,000 to 80,000 by the end of the first quarter of 2001, it said. In addition, the delivery of food to displaced Congolese and Angolan refugees alike was made very difficult because of “extreme fuel shortages, non-existent roads and fierce fighting across the country,” WFP stated. In the central town of Kabinda, a rebel siege for the past one and a half years had cut people off from markets and other sources of food, pushing malnutrition levels to alarmingly high levels, it added.