Warning of major food emergency

The humanitarian community has warned that the agricultural outlook is grim, and said that as the July-October rainy season approaches, the most vulnerable will require significant relief assistance. The insecure situation means harvesting has been severely disrupted, and land preparation which should have been completed during February has been interrupted. Humanitarian sources told IRIN that if the planting season was not successful, the end-year harvest will not be enough to meet the country’s needs. They warned that unless food security agencies were given access to get the population started on food production, the country was likely to slide further into a major food emergency in the coming months. The sources also expressed concern over the possibility of high infant mortality in the Kono and Kailahun areas. Reports of measles and meningitis identified among those displaced from these areas were a strong indication that scores of children may be dying from preventable diseases.