People crowd outside a makeshift clinic high in the northern hills, hoping for medicine to treat their malaria fever, cure their disease. Feeding centers in several provinces fill to capacity. Nurses attending to wounded and sick people in the capital after a violent surge in the civil war. The people of Burundi faced no shortage of violence and hardship. Since 1992, the ngo Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has continued to provide medical aid to stricken civilians in this...
more »People crowd outside a makeshift clinic high in the northern hills, hoping for medicine to treat their malaria fever, cure their disease. Feeding centers in several provinces fill to capacity. Nurses attending to wounded and sick people in the capital after a violent surge in the civil war. The people of Burundi faced no shortage of violence and hardship. Since 1992, the ngo Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has continued to provide medical aid to stricken civilians in this war-torn country. Provinces in northern Burundi have also observed a dramatic increase in malnutrition rates in months due to consecutive weather-affected poor harvests (late or insufficient rains) and aggravated by a recent malaria epidemic. In the province of Karuzi (centre-north of Burundi) where MSF runs nutritional programmes, the capacity of therapeutic and supplementary feeding centres (TFC/SFC) are having to be constantly increased to cope with new arrivals of severely malnourished children. Malaria hampers the capacity of Burundians to work in their fields and also increases the numbers of people with severe anaemia. In order to combat this weakness, a General Food Distribution (GFD) must be organised by the World Food Program (WFP) whereby a full food ration is distributed to the whole population. If no GFD is organised, the consequences for the population, both children and adults, will be dramatic. In order to address the basic needs of the population, and to prevent the worst case scenario for the future, MSF urges the responsible agencies such as WFP, with the support of the community of donors - in conjunction with relevant NGOs to: * ensure a general food distribution in the affected provinces * assure the care of malnourished adults * distribute seeds and tools (by FAO) in conjunction with a distribution of a seed protection ration (by WFP).
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