Urgent aid needed for displaced populations

More than half a million people forced from their homes by the fighting in Burundi are in “urgent need” of more help from the international community, UN Assistant Emergency Relief Coordinator and Director of the Office of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Ross Mountain said on Tuesday. “The country is facing one of the most acute problems of population displacement in Africa today,” Mountain said at the end of his three-day visit to the country. “These populations, particularly women and children, are in urgent need of increased assistance. It is of vital importance that supplies for the short and long term displaced can be delivered at all times,” he said, adding that “the humanitarian crisis in Burundi is an area of major concern to the UN”.

Mountain said that the signature of a “Framework for Consultation of Protection of Internally Displaced Persons” by the minister of human rights and UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Burundi had been “a great step forward” in ensuring the protection of displaced populations. The nutritional crisis, he said, was another issue of “major concern”. In March 2001, more than 98,000 malnourished patients received supplementary food, compared to 40,000 in March 2000. “Malaria is also a worry,” he said. Close to 247,000 patients received treatment for the disease in April 2001, 150,000 more than the year before.

Urging the donor community to increase support for humanitarian efforts, Mountain pointed out that gaps remained in the provision of humanitarian assistance and services.
Needs such as health and nutritional care, and access to water, should be addressed urgently, he stressed.