125,000 vulnerable people need food aid

Humanitarian sources told IRIN today (Tuesday) that 125,000 vulnerable people, of which a large majority are displaced, need urgent food assistance in South Kivu, eastern DRC. In a report received by IRIN, they said that important food deficits were reported in the province as agricultural activity has been paralysed notably because of the massive population displacement and the lack of seeds and other agricultural inputs. The report stressed that the identification of the vulnerable population was incomplete. It also noted that supplementary feeding programmes were required to assist some 10,000 severely malnourished children, adding that malnutrition rates were likely to increase next year as a result of the disruption of this year’s planting season. Meanwhile, it is estimated that 40 percent of the health facilities in South Kivu were destroyed or looted, including nine referral hospitals, the report said.