Although cereal production across sub-Saharan Africa reached a record level of 90 mn tonnes in 1996 (14 mn tonnes more than the year before), drought, warfare, disease and food shortages have hit millions of people in 14 countries, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has reported. The FAO has urged donors and relief agencies to quickly deliver relief to eastern Zaire, and to continue emergency assistance to returning refugees and displaced persons in Rwanda, Burundi, Liberia and Sierra Leone, among other countries.
Rwanda: The sudden return in late 1996 of hundreds of thousands of refugees from both Zaire and Tanzania has greatly increased the country's emergency needs. Since then, thousands more Rwandese refugees have continued to return home each week. The higher demand, combined with a 12 per cent decline in the production of beans, the staple food crop, has pushed up food prices by 30 per cent over last year's average. The FAO and the UN's World Food Programme estimate that 81,000 tonnes of cereals and 33,000 tonnes of pulses will be needed during the first half of 1997 to cover the needs of some 2.6 million people, or one-third of Rwanda's population. Clashes between the army and Hutu militiamen continue in parts of the country, hampering the work of relief organizations.
Burundi: Fighting between Hutu rebel forces and the army continues to take many lives and to displace hundreds of thousands of villagers. UNHCR reported on 26 March that while many Burundian refugees have returned home, 281,000 remain in Tanzania, 44,000 in Zaire and 9,000 in Rwanda. Both returnees and newly displaced villagers have been directed by the government to "regroupment" camps. UN officials have expressed concern about the regroupment policy, pointing to "dangerously unsanitary" conditions in the camps and evidence of high levels of malnutrition. To facilitate relief efforts, a regional summit on Burundi, held in Arusha, Tanzania, on 16 April, eased the trade sanctions imposed on Burundi following the July 1996 coup. It also urged the government of Burundi to disband its regroupment camps.
Tanzania: Besides hosting over 360,000 refugees from Burundi and Zaire, Tanzania is experiencing one of the worst ever droughts in its northern regions. By late March, WFP said some 3.9 million Tanzanians were affected by the drought, with 670,800 of t hem in need of emergency food aid over a four-month period. President Benjamin Mkapa announced on 10 April that Tanzania's grain stocks were totally depleted, and appealed to donors for $1.3 mn of food aid.
Uganda: Attacks by rebel forces in the northern provinces, combined with drought in northern and eastern Uganda and the presence of large numbers of Sudanese, Rwandese and Zairian refugees, have disrupted agriculture and increased food needs. The UN has appealed to donors for $5.4 mn to assist more than 180,000 Ugandans displaced in the north. Of the approximately 225,000 Sudanese refugees in Uganda, some 60,000 have returned home since early March, following advances by rebel forces in southern Sudan.
Sudan: On 18 February, the UN launched an inter-agency appeal for $120.8 mn to cover emergency needs in Sudan during 1997. This includes food aid for 2.6 million people and health, nutrition and water/sanitation assistance for a war-affected population of 4.2 million, more than three-fourths of them in the south. Over the past year, the Sudanese government has increased its restrictions on the flow of international relief assistance, and some organizations have suspended their operations in Sudan. In the two previous UN inter-agency appeals for Sudan, donors provided only about half the requested funds.
Angola: Despite delays in the formation of the Government of Unity and National Reconciliation, which includes leaders of the UNITA opposition movement, the ceasefire has generally held over the past two years. To aid resettlement and other humanitarian activities, the UN is appealing to donors to provide $228.4 mn during 1997. This includes the food, health, education and other needs of some 1 million internally displaced people and more than 300,000 Angolan refugees, as well as the demobilization and reintegration of an estimated 100,000 former combatants and their 340,000 family members.
Liberia: After seven years of civil war, national elections are set for May. Some of the 770,000 refugees (and an equally large number of internally displaced people) are beginning to return to their homes. Since agricultural production in 1997 will still be far below pre-war levels and the country is unable to import more than 50,000 tonnes of food, the FAO says 116,000 tonnes of food aid will be needed during the year.
Sierra Leone: More than 500,000 of the country's 1.6 million displaced people have returned to their homes since the signing of a peace accord in November 1996 which formally ended five years of civil war. On 1 April the UN issued an appeal for $68.2 mn, for March 1997 through February 1998, to assist the affected populations and help consolidate the peace process. In addition, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies have appealed for $16.4 mn and $1.9 mn, respectively, to fund their relief work in Sierra Leone in 1997.