DR of Congo: UN airdrops food into embattled Katanga province

In its first food airdrops outside Sudan in eight years, the under-funded United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is facing a “logistical nightmare” in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as it seeks to aid up to 200,000 people uprooted by fighting in the violence-wracked south-eastern province of Katanga.

The airdrops from an Antonov-12 aircraft for camps near the town of Dubie started on Wednesday and are the first ever into the DRC, where WFP usually transports food by trucks and airlifts. But rains have made it especially difficult to move in by road enough food to Dubie, where malnutrition rates are increasingly alarming.

“People are trapped in these camps and our access to them is very difficult because of fighting and very poor roads,” WFP Country Director Felix Bamezon said. “These airdrops allow us to preposition food for distribution rather than risk long delays bringing food in by road.”

In addition to facing severe security and logistical obstacles, WFP’s operations in DRC are grossly under-funded. With three months left of its two-and-a-half year Protacted Relief and Recovery Operation in the country, it has a critical shortfall of 36 percent or $69 million of the total $191 million required to help up to 1.6 million internally displaced and other vulnerable people.

“It is very hard to raise sufficient funds for our operations in DRC, which is one of the most difficult environments in the world for humanitarian agencies to operate in because of its size, continued insecurity in the east and a critical lack of even basic infrastructure,” Mr. Bamezon said.

Some 38 metric tonnes of cereals were dropped on Dubie airstrip, 500 kilometres north of Lubumbashi, Katanga’s capital. In all, 80 tonnes will be dropped for distribution by a local non-governmental organization to 13,000 internally displaced people (IDPs).

A recent nutritional survey by Médecins sans Frontières described the malnutrition rates in three camps as “staggering.”

“We have long been calling attention to the deteriorating situation in Katanga,” Mr. Bamezon said. “Over the next three months, WFP plans to assist as many as possible of the estimated 220,000 IDPs in the province, but reaching them depends on safe access, security and sufficient resources.”

Over the next few weeks, 200 tonnes of food, including cereals and corn-soya blend, which is especially beneficial for malnourished children and mothers, will be airdropped. Malnutrition and mortality rates are above emergency levels in Katanga, exacerbated by recent offensives against militia groups.

Since a WFP convoy came under attack last year, transport costs have more than doubled because of insecurity. The dreadful road conditions following the rains and a lack of vehicles also hamper transport. In one example, food took nearly a month to arrive by road in Dubie.

After Dubie, the airdrop operation moves to Mitwaba, where the food will be immediately distributed, and to Sampwe.

Last year WFP airdropped 150,000 tonnes of food into south Sudan and the strife-torn western Darfur region.