EuropaWorld 11/5/2001 Crisis In Katanga

As the cease fire in the Democratic Republic of Congo begins to stabilise families are reported to be emerging slowly from the forests in the north and east of the country, malnourished and almost naked. In the northern province of Katanga, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has warned that a humanitarian crisis is surfacing as desperate men, women and children begin arriving in towns in search of help.

Claude Jibidar, WFP Co-ordinator for Eastern DRC, who recently made the first WFP food delivery by air into the rebel-held town of Manono in Northern Katanga, saw throngs of mothers and children, extremely emaciated or bloated from malnutrition and wearing only shreds of clothes. They were congregated on the town's hospital grounds, anxiously awaiting relief food. Roughly 23 percent of children under five of Manono's 25,000 population are malnourished, he estimated, 19 percent severely so.

He estimated that tens of thousands of people who had been repeatedly forced out of their villages by the conflict around them or who had been trapped deep in the bush by armed militias, were now extremely hungry and malnourished, while hundreds of thousands more were in need of food aid. As aid workers start now to regain gain access to areas long isolated by the war, WFP is preparing to find populations in a similarly grave condition to those in Katanga.

The tonne of food delivered to Manono during Jibidar's trip aboard a small aircraft was immediately distributed to the 200 most malnourished children. This will barely last a week, however, as more and more malnourished people are streaming into Manono.

"There is a direct correlation between these alarming levels of malnutrition and the multi-layered war which has rendered hundreds of thousands of people without the ability to survive," said Jibidar. "It is shocking to see the numbers of hungry lining up for food in Kalemie and Nyunzu in northern Katanga which used to be the breadbasket of the region, exporting food throughout DRC."

A major obstacle facing WFP is the lack of air capacity. Many areas of northern Katanga can only be reached by air and the agency is planning to launch an emergency airlift to a number of these isolated locations.

However, WFP is facing a serious funding shortfall. Food needs have more than doubled this year in DRC. As a result, its current DRC operations, which feed 1.4 million people, are only 30 per cent resourced. Another $43 million is needed between now and the end of the year.

European donors who have already contributed to WFP's appeal for 2001 include Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, and Switzerland. Canada, Japan and the United States have also contributed.