Some regions of Burundi are experiencing their third consecutive year of drought. Recently, a severe malaria epidemic has contributed to a dangerous deterioration in nutritional levels. In response, WFP has more than doubled its support to nutritional centres where over 100,000 malnourished people, many of them children, are being fed. The agency's relief operation has overcome pervasive obstacles in delivering food to remote and highly insecure areas in the country. Recent fighting in Bujumbura Rural and Makamba province, for example, has severely hampered deliveries, leading to temporary delays in food distributions, which will resume once security conditions improve, according to Oberle.
Hunger persists in other parts of the region as well.
Immediate food needs are still urgent, however, and WFP food supplies are almost depleted. In Rwanda, nearly 30,000 Congolese and Burundian refugees depend on WFP food rations.