More than 56,000 Congolese refugees are receiving only half the food rations they need, due to a dwindling of funding for food needs in five camps in Burundi, according the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). The refugees, most of them fleeing conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), require food assistance to nourish their families.
Since April 1, 2023, WFP has been forced to cut rations in a country where humanitarian needs are high, exacerbated by high levels of food insecurity, poverty, and the ongoing influx of refugees fleeing the conflict in eastern DRC. Cutting rations will exacerbate food insecurity and the nutritional status of refugees and could further aggravate tensions between host and refugee communities around camps and transit centers.
The UN agency provides both in-kind food assistance and cash to buy food in local markets. Until recently, each person had been receiving cash and /or food to the equivalent of US$0.55 per day, which is designed to cover a full food ration, that is 2,100 kilocalories required to meet basic food and nutrition needs. This sum was now halved.
“While we appreciate the support received so far, we urgently need US$7.1million to feed the 56,000 refugees with full rations for the next 6 months. This is critical to meet the nutritional needs of the households in camps and transit centers in Burundi,” said Housainou Taal, the WFP Representative and Country Director in Burundi.
“The refugees are extremely vulnerable with limited access to land or work outside the camps and are exclusively dependent on humanitarian assistance for their survival,” he said.
In 2022, the World Food Programme reached almost 1 million food-insecure people across Burundi. Of these, 52 percent were women and 12 percent were people with disabilities. WFP also provided 11,202 tons of food and over US$6 million in cash-based transfers.
According to the UN agency, beneficiaries included 55,577 refugees hosted in five camps, Burundian returnees from neighboring countries, people affected by the socio-economic impact of COVID-19, and those affected by climatic shocks and displaced by the rising waters of Lake Tanganyika. Other beneficiaries included schoolchildren in food-insecure areas as well as moderately malnourished pregnant and breastfeeding women and girls and children aged 6-59 months.
In a related development meanwhile, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the Government of Burundi have launched an appeal Monday for over $194 million to reach more than 1.1 million people in the country with humanitarian assistance this year.
OCHA says adequate funding will be critical to address the country’s challenges which include climate change, natural disasters, internal displacement, and disease outbreaks such as cholera, measles and malaria. Overall, an estimated 1.5 million people in Burundi will need humanitarian aid this year. Last year’s humanitarian response plan (HRP) was just over halfway funded.
Burundi is highly vulnerable to climate change and natural disasters have caused significant internal displacement. In 2021 and 2022, various shocks, including disease outbreaks, and the war in Ukraine, exacerbated existing humanitarian needs, affecting vulnerable populations such as refugees and internally displaced persons.
The overall humanitarian situation in Burundi remains tense and serious human rights violations continue. Burundians are facing a humanitarian crisis characterized by food insecurity, violence, natural hazards and economic decline.
The people of Burundi experience a triple burden: high climate risk, widespread poverty and conflict. Even though the worst of the violence has subsided in 2023, the security situation remains precarious, with an unstable political situation and ongoing displacement outside the country.
The country hosts over 85,000 refugees and asylum seekers, mostly from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Support for refugees in Burundi is not covered by the Burundi Humanitarian Response Plan, but by the DRC Regional Refugee Response Plan (US$ 549.4 million). As of April 4, donors have provided only US$25.8 million (4.7 percent coverage).
Further information
Full text: WFP to reduce food rations by half for refugees as funding decreases in Burundi, WFP press release, March 30, 2023
https://www.wfp.org/news/wfp-reduce-food-rations-half-refugees-funding-decreases-burundi
Full text: Joint launch of the Needs and Humanitarian Response Plan 2023 for Burundi: $194.2 millions required, OCHA press release, April 3, 2023
https://reliefweb.int/report/burundi/joint-launch-needs-and-humanitarian-response-plan-2023-burundi-1942-millions-required