[Burundi] Government Urged to Help Starving Nation

from Community Newswire

By Ben Pindar,

A British-based aid agency has today called on the Government to take urgent action to help more than two million people on the brink of starvation in Africa.

Charity staff at ActionAid have accused the world's governments of "ignoring" the people of Burundi where almost a third of the population have been forced into starvation by several years of poor rainfall, the lack of a national food security policy and chronic poverty.

Without an urgent increase in food aid, thousands could die of hunger warns ActionAid.

The World Food Programme and aid agencies are distributing emergency rations, but the charity claims an estimated $75 million of aid is still needed in order to avert disaster.

Poor rainfall over the past six years in the north, north-eastern and central provinces has brought starvation to areas which were traditionally regarded as Burundi's food basket. Crops such as maize and sorghum have failed and cassava has been wiped out by disease.

Burundi used to receive reliable rains twice a year and had ample supplies of fresh food. Its farmers have never had to learn the techniques of irrigation and food preservation which are used by people in more arid areas to survive long periods without rain.

The newly installed government is currently trying to rebuild a nation that has suffered the effects of 12 years of ethnic conflict and has not yet had the chance to devise detailed food security policies and planning systems.

Sam Braimah, director of ActionAid in Burundi, said: "We need a national food security policy that protects poor farmers in order to break the vicious circle of poverty, hunger and disease.

"However, right now the priority must be to feed people who have absolutely nothing left to eat."

Burundi is the second most densely populated country in Africa. A demographic explosion has resulted in the division of land into smaller and smaller plots.

The legacy of a twelve year civil war and population pressure has led to degradation of the environment and the loss of most of Burundi's forests.

ActionAid is currently working with local partners to distribute food to more than 6,500 families in some of the hardest-hit districts.

It has delivered 35 tonnes of beans and 35 tonnes of maize and cassava flour, worth £20,000 to two communes in Kirundo, one of five provinces where the government has declared a state of famine. This will be followed by deliveries to the Ruyigi and Rutana provinces.

ActionAid works in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas to fight global poverty and tackle the injustice and inequity that cause it. For more information visit www.actionaid.org