UN food agency assists war-affected civilians, despite insecurity

Despite continuing insecurity in Burundi's western province of Bujumbura Rural, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) continues to deliver food aid to thousands of people affected by the country's long-running civil war, the agency reported on Friday. WFP said it had resumed food distributions on Monday in the most troubled commune of Kabezi in Bujumbura Rural, south of the capital, Bujumbura. Kabezi has been the scene of violent confrontations between government forces and the rebel Forces nationales de liberation, led by Agathon Rwasa, the only group remaining outside the country's power-sharing agreement. Three other former rebel movements have signed ceasefire agreements with the government and are taking part in the transition. WFP reported that fighting was continuing to displace thousands of people in Bujumbura Rural "on a regular basis". Residents often returned to their homes only to find them burnt and their crops and food supplies looted or destroyed. "The fighting in Bujumbura Rural Province is a matter of major concern to us, as it has been affecting many thousands of people and compromising their ability to feed themselves," Zlatan Milisic, the WFP Burundi country director, was quoted as saying. "The ongoing violence is all the more depressing considering much of the rest of the country is getting back on its feet after years of civil war. Given peace, Burundi should be able to feed itself in due course." WFP reported that since March, it had assisted an average of 38,000 people in Kabezi every month, "with intermittent breaks when insecurity makes food distributions simply too dangerous". The agency said access to Kabezi had been restricted at times for periods of a few weeks, but had resumed this week "at the earliest possible opportunity, following a slightly improved security situation in the area". Since Monday, more than 42,000 people in the province have benefited from WFP's food distributions, carried out with the assistance of an NGO partner, CARE, the agency reported. Meanwhile, WFP said it was continuing to assist a "large number" of refugees who had fled across the border from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) following military activity in and around the eastern town of Bukavu in June. It said food convoys had been dispatched to the northern province of Cibitoke to meet the needs of a first wave of some 25,000 refugees, a number that peaked at around 43,000 in the ensuing weeks. Some refugees had returned to the DRC since, but WFP was continuing to feed up to 30,000 others in Burundi, the agency reported. Burundi has been fighting a civil war since 1993.