DROUGHT
Failed rains in northern Burundi have left tens of thousands of people needing food aid and prompted (foranlediget) many to seek work in neighbouring Rwanda to earn enough to feed their families.
Some 35,710 households (about 180,000 people) in Kirundo province require food and seeds, according to government officials and UN agencies*, who last week visited the province.
“It is clear that the population of the communes of Busoni, Bugabira and part of Kirundo face a food shortage that can even worsen if nothing is done,” said Floribert Kubwayezu of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Charles Dei, the humanitarian coordinator in Burundi, who also serves as country director of the World Food Programme (WFP), told IRIN that the lack of rain had adversely (ugunstigt) affected the January bean and maize harvest. This season accounts for 35 percent of Burundi’s total food production.
Rains stopped just after crops were planted and did not resume (begynde igen)) until mid-February, so many farmers had nothing to harvest, Benoit Miburu, the secretary of Busoni commune, told IRIN.
As a result, the little food on sale in local markets tends to be imported and therefore expensive. Whereas 1kg of beans usually sells for 300-350 francs (about 30 US cents), in Gatare market the price is now 900 francs.
HOW TO COPE
Many residents of the affected communes go to Rwanda in search of food or work.
“In Rwabikara and Marembo in Gasenyi zone you can see every morning 500 people leaving and coming back in the evening after a day’s work in Rwanda,” said Louis Ciza, an agronomist with Action Agro Allemande, a German NGO.
Domitille Vuguziga, a widow, was among many people IRIN saw returning home from Rwanda after a long day’s work, and an even longer commute.
“I left here at 2am and arrived there at six. I worked until [midday],” she said, explaining that she was paid with just enough maize to feed herself and three children for a day.
This flimsy safety net will be unavailable in March and April, when there will be nothing to harvest in Rwanda.
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