Food security threats around Mbandaka

Despite the recent withdrawal of armed forces to some 200 km north of Mbandaka, in Equateur Province, and the deployment of military observers by the UN Mission in the DRC (MONUC), the security situation remained precarious outside Mbandaka, WFP reported on Friday. Attempts to provide food relief for vulnerable local populations and internally displaced people (IDPs) around Mbandaka had been constrained by a volatile security situation (putting at risk WFP, partner staff and food stocks), as well as by sketchy beneficiary figures, IDPs scattered over large areas, lack of partners, impassable bridges and roads, and the risk of land mines, it stated. Some 60,000 IDPs were estimated to be on the front line between Mbandaka and Ikela, and were not yet expected to return to their places of origin, WFP stated. The local population would remain in great need of assistance until local production and commerce resumed, with the heavy military presence in the area having had a negative impact on food security by putting pressure on local consumption, it said. WFP also cited reports of an increasing number of assassinations at night in Lubumbashi, in the southeastern province of Katanga, and incidents of food transporters being harassed on the Bukamu-Kinkondja river axis. The agency estimated the number of IDPs in government-held territories of Katanga at about 330,000, of whom it said it was assisting 128,000 on an ad hoc basis. Last week, it distributed 70 mt of food aid in Malemba-Nkulu, Likasi, Kolwezi, Kamina and Bukama, it added. [for more details, go to: http://www.wfp.org/ereport/index.htm]