ICRC ends food aid operations in two provinces

The ICRC has ended food aid distributions in Burundi’s northern provinces of Kayanza and Ngozi, an ICRC statement said on Thursday. In the two provinces, some 100,000 families, both “local and displaced”, received more than 5,300 tonnes of food aid during an emergency conducted by the organisation in mid-April. The operation was intended to supplement the assistance provided by the WFP elsewhere in the north, ICRC said. “The emergency rations - consisting of beans, maize, oil and salt - enabled vulnerable communities to survive until the harvest began in June,” ICRC said. The operation was designed to mitigate the consequences of a severe food shortage in these provinces and areas receiving WFP assistance, it said.

“Considerable manpower and logistic resources were required to carry out the operation, which was generally effective, although some distributions had to be cancelled in Kayanza province owing to poor security conditions,” ICRC noted. The successful harvest, the decrease in theft in the fields, the phasing out by several NGOs of emergency therapeutic nutrition programmes and the fact that food aid did not turn up for resale at local markets all point to an improved food situation in the two provinces, ICRC noted. The agency is considering launching another programme in the near future aimed at providing food aid and agricultural assistance. The programme will help farmers achieve basic self-sufficiency and increase in their crop yields. “The idea is currently being discussed with the Burundi authorities and the specialised international agencies concerned,” ICRC said.