Food shortage After crippling Burundi Floods
Pastor Dale Morgan
Food shortage After crippling Burundi Floods*
By Karen Allen
BBC News, Burundi
The face of the two-year-old boy is stained with tears but take a look
closer and you see that the youngster, in torn jumper and shorts, is
wracked by fever.
His name is Anaclit and his father Jeremia, also skinny and frail,
explains that his son has grown ill after the food in the house started
to run out - a looming crisis triggered by the onset of floods.
"We have one meal a day for everyone. In the morning there are always
fights among the children over food," says Jeremia Higuburundi.
Jeremia's fields of maize and sweet potato were ruined by intense rains.
Like his neighbours, he has lost his capacity to feed his six children.
Tens of thousands of other families in Ngosi in northern Burundi face a
similar plight.
A sign of trouble ahead in this central African state, trying to get
back on its feet after 13 years of civil war.
Visual contradictions
On the surface it is hard to believe that Burundi is teetering on the
edge of a food crisis.
The lush green hills belie the fact that as many as one in four people
who live in this country of seven million soon may not have food to eat.
A state of emergency has been declared in several provinces
For the aid agencies trying to convince the world that Burundi needs
urgent international assistance, the visual contradictions, make it a
tough message to get across.
The recent floods have devastated 80% of last November's crop. The next
harvest is not due until June.
In Ngosi fields which at this time of year should be rich with sweet
potato, rice and maize, have been turned into swamps.
The government has declared a state of emergency in nearly half of the
provinces and the UN's World Food Programme is appealing for an extra
$12m (£6.1m).
The landscape in Burundi makes it particularly vulnerable to the erratic
weather conditions brought about by climate change affecting large
swathes of Africa.
The stunning hills makes soil erosion a particular problem when the
rainfall is sudden and intense.
Tough times ahead
With more and more headlines about food crises in the developing world
there is now a push to get African governments to take responsibility
for their own humanitarian crises.
Ministers have rightly been accused of mishandling food stocks around
the region. But Burundi is so poor it simply does not have any reserves
to draw upon.
You can't get economic growth on an empty stomach or sustain peace on an
empty stomach-Stephanie Savariaud-UN World Food Programme
As a country in transition it has relied on the UN World Food Programme
(WFP) to help feed its own people. Critics see this as fostering a
culture of dependence.
But Stephanie Savariaud from WFP says that fails to take into account
Burundi's complex food security issues and levels of poverty.
"You definitely need more than food aid to get a country back on its
feet after 13 years of civil war, and it will take other people to help
Burundi recover.
"But you can't get economic growth on an empty stomach or sustain peace
on an empty stomach," Ms Savariaud said.
For the people of Ngosi the next few months signal tough times ahead.
They already feature high on the malnutrition statistics.
Up to 45% of the population is suffering from chronic malnutrition - not
distended stomachs - but an insidious form of hunger which stunts growth
and a country's ability to prise itself out of poverty.
In Burundi this has traditionally been the lean season - but unable to
rely on the fat of the land because crops have been destroyed, there are
very real fears that the plight of its people could rapidly escalate.