FEATURE: Security situation aggravates hunger crisis in DRC – UN

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization says the security situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo is causing repeated population displacements and aggravating the hunger crisis.

CAPE TOWN, June 8 (ANA) – The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on Tuesday said the security situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo remains a concern as it is causing repeated population displacements and aggravating the hunger crisis.

It said that in 2020 the country experienced the worst food crisis globally, with 21.8 million people facing high levels of acute food insecurity.

Prior to the pandemic, more than 70% of the population was already living below the poverty line, and the situation has worsened due to the impact of Covid-19, which has led to increased food prices, reduced income opportunities and economic decline.

“Renewed violence perpetrated by armed groups on several fronts is affecting people’s lives and livelihoods in particularly hard-hit areas, such as Ituri, the Kivus, Tanganyika and the greater Kasai region,” the statement read.

In April, FAO and the World Food Programme (WFP) warned that about 27.3 million people in the DRC face “acute” food insecurity, some seven million of whom are suffering “emergency” levels of acute hunger.

The two UN agencies said levels of hunger in the DRC are at a “staggering” record high, now affecting one in three people, making the central African country home to the highest number of people in the world who are in urgent need of food security assistance.

Conflict remains a key cause of hunger, particularly in the central Kasai, along with the eastern provinces of Ituri, North and South Kivu and Tanganyika, the UN agencies said.

Considering the high risk of further spikes in violence throughout 2021 and the already dire food security situation, FAO launched an anticipatory action project in early 2021 with the support of the government of the Kingdom of Belgium.

The project aims to mitigate the immediate consequences of conflict-induced displacement on food security by distributing crop seeds and tools to 5,600 households.

FAO said this helps to boost their food production and prevent a rapid food security deterioration among displaced people, returnees and host communities.

In order to ensure the timeliness of the intervention, strategic stocks of agricultural inputs have been pre-positioned in the areas where new episodes of violence or conflict are likely to occur. Distribution will be prompted by near real-time early-warning information available at sub-national level, linked, for example, to episodes of violence and displacement.

“This is a pilot initiative in the field of anticipatory action to mitigate the immediate consequences of conflict. FAO’s goal is to establish clear trigger mechanisms and operating procedures for this new avenue of the anticipatory action programme,” FAO said.

“The aim is to prevent the adoption of negative coping mechanisms by households, alleviate tensions and prevent the further increase of humanitarian needs.”

Last month, global humanitarian organisation Action Against Hunger supported food security and community markets while helping to revive local agriculture in the DRC’s conflict-ridden areas.

The organisation said that by connecting buyers with local traders, its approach combines food assistance and local economic recovery while allowing programme participants to make their own food choices and maintain autonomy.

The country’s eastern North-Kivu and Ituri provinces have been subjected to violence carried out by dozens of armed groups in which thousands of civilians have been killed or forced from their homes.

Since 2017, Ituri province has experienced armed inter-communal conflict, so access to food is a daily challenge. People have fled violence, lost their property and livelihoods, and abandoned their farmland to seek safety. This combination of factors, along with long-term poverty in the region, has increased food insecurity, Action Against Hunger said.

– African News Agency (ANA); Editing by Yaron Blecher