Food insecurity affecting over 10 million

Over 10 million people in the DRC are living in conditions of food insecurity, including some two million seriously-affected inhabitants, FAO-Kinshasa said. In an analysis of the situation facing the country at the start of the Lusaka peace implementation process, FAO said those most affected included 831,000 displaced persons, 844,000 vulnerable urban residents and some 300,000 refugees currently in the DRC. Other affected people included 5.1 million living along the front line, 844,000 less vulnerable but still “fragilised” urban residents, and 2.5 million inhabitants of homes hosting displaced people, it said in a report received by IRIN. In addition to the 10 million affected, another 4.1 million people in isolated rural areas were at risk of food insecurity, including 1.3 million in Maniema province, it said.

The division of the country in two since the start of the conflict had prevented almost all internal trade, while population movements had seriously disrupted agricultural activities, the report said. Other factors that had contributed to widespread food insecurity included the deterioration of people’s purchasing power, the export of resources by foreign armies present in the DRC, the appropriation of farmers’ produce by soldiers, and the shortage of basic goods resulting from strict government-imposed fiscal rules, the analysis said.