Food aid for refugees hard to come by

Tens of thousands of Congolese refugees who have been in Burundi since June are an "extra load" on the UN World Food Programme (WFP) that is hampering its capacity to meet food needs for Burundi from September to January 2005. The agency reported on Friday that, since June, it had delivered 1,000 mt of food aid to the refugees who fled to Burundi from eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The most recent delivery was to roughly 1,000 refugees who survived last week's massacre at Gatumba transit centre in the northwest of the Burundian capital, Bujumbura. More than 100 of the refugees were wounded. During the mass killing, the attackers burned virtually all food in the camp. The next day, WFP rushed high-energy biscuits, corn-soya blend and vegetable oil to the survivors and on Monday it distributed enough food rations for the refugees to live on for one week. More rations are to be delivered next week. The agency must also continue to feed Congolese refugees in other camps at Rugombo and Karurama in the northwestern province of Cibitoke. The WFP's Deputy Country Director in Burundi, Foday Turay, has called for an end to the violence, "to allow humanitarian aid to reach both the Congolese refugees and other communities in need of food in Burundi." But Turay also expressed concern over the agency's capacity to meet Burundians food aid requirements. The end of the year would be a lean season when many farmers would have used up their food from the last harvest, he said. A national harvest and food stocks assessment the WFP carried out in Burundi together with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization in June revealed a substantial shortage of food, especially of pulses. The food shortage was mainly due to irregular rains, food crop diseases, higher basic food prices as well as on-going violence and insecurity. The shortages have reportedly had an affect on the health of vulnerable people in some provinces. Since the end of July, WFP's targeted food distribution per month is 6,800 mt. Officials expect to distribute more than 41,000 mt by the end of 2004. Turay said that between now and January 2005 Burundi still needs at least 15,000 mt of cereals and 5,000 mt of pulses, as well as vegetable oil, corn-soya blend, sugar and salt.