Nutritional crisis looms in Lubumbashi, says NGO

International relief NGO, Action Against Hunger (known by its French acronym, ACF), expressed concern on Wednesday about the nutritional situation in Lubumbashi, southeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), because of what it termed a "steady and large surge" in malnutrition among the city's population. In a statement, ACF said that as of May, it had registered in its feeding centres 3,733 people suffering from moderate malnutrition, and 828 patients suffering from severe malnutrition. The NGO said that its current caseload of severely malnourished patients in Lubumbashi was the largest it had seen in one area in 24 years of working in places such as Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq. "The population of Lubumbashi, once the economic centre of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, has run out of coping strategies to deal with the continual onslaught of hardships brought on by the current war, 32 years of kleptocratic rule of Mobutu [Sese Seko], and the drought in southern Africa," Cathy Skoula, ACF head of mission in the DRC, said. According to ACF, a combination of decreasing cash and food availability had led to the nutritional crisis in Lubumbashi. It said a recent household economy survey conducted by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation estimated that 20 percent of the population ate only once every other day and that 50 percent ate once per day. A nutritional survey performed by ACF in January found that 5.3 percent of children aged under five living in Lubumbashi suffered from acute malnutrition. The NGO called on all parties with a stake in the DRC peace process to ensure that humanitarian assistance was provided to civilians immediately "to avert a further deterioration of the nutritional situation that could soon lead to a significant surge in mortality". Lubumbashi is the principal city of Katanga Province. With a population of about 1.5 million, the city is home to 35,000 internally displaced persons, the national parliament, and Gecamines, a large mining company. Noting that a peace agreement signed in December 2002 had led to hopes that humanitarian crises would subside in the country, ACF said that nominal peace in the DRC had yet to translate into direct benefits for the population. "Peace should not be used as a smokescreen for the current humanitarian emergency in Lubumbashi," the NGO said.