UN agency to cut food aid to millions

A drastic shortage of funds will force the UN World Food Programme (WFP) to begin to slash its food aid to two million people in Burundi unless an additional US $23.4 million is received, the agency reported on Thursday. "Without urgent funding, WFP food stocks will run out completely by September - when the country's food needs are traditionally most acute and during a fragile post-election period," Zlatan Milisic, the WFP Country Director in Burundi, said in a statement. The agency said while some food distributions had already been postponed or cancelled, maize rations would have to be cut by 50 percent starting in early June. Moreover, the agency would suspend all Food for Work activities, which support local development. It said that by August, all other food aid commodities would be reduced. WFP Burundi would use its limited food stocks to focus on such life-saving activities as therapeutic feeding for malnourished mothers and children, but even these will be affected without additional pledges, the agency reported. The cutbacks come as Burundi prepares for general elections, scheduled to begin with communal polls on 3 June until presidential elections on 19 August, marking the end of the country's decade-long conflict and subsequent transition period. "Currently, there are hopes for peace and recovery in Burundi, but adverse climatic conditions, plant diseases, extreme poverty and displacement make the daily life of the average Burundian a constant challenge," Milisic said. "And now, as the country faces the critical test of a peaceful transition, we have no other choice but to scale back our assistance to the poorest." WFP said the lack of resources would not only have a serious impact on the well-being of 600,000 Burundians who had for the last six months endured drought and consequent food shortages, but would also jeopardise the supply of life-saving food to 250 feeding centres helping 210,000 malnourished children and nursing mothers across the country. In addition, it said, the distribution of food rations, which keeps nearly a million farmers from resorting to eating their seeds during the planting season, is also at risk, endangering subsequent harvests. Some 15,000 Rwandan and Congolese refugees as well as more than 90,000 Burundian refugees expected to return to their homeland in the coming months, all of whom rely heavily on WFP aid for their very survival, would also face major cuts, the agency said. Some 40,500 mt of food is urgently needed to help the two million people until December, WFP said. "War has robbed plenty of Burundians of their homes and livelihoods," Milisic said. "We have to do everything we can to make sure the assistance we provide meets their basic needs and support the return to peace. Otherwise peace and democracy will just remain empty concepts." The agency reported that recent contributions to its operations in Burundi were from the United States, $3.7 million; Belgium, $2.3 million; Canada, $1.3 million; Netherlands, $1.2 million; and Ireland, $660,000.