Hunger replaces war in Congo’s Katanga, El Niño affects 550,000 people this season (Bangré, Habibou)

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http://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news/2016/04/01/hunger-replaces-war-congo-s-katanga

Abstract:

The separatist rebels that had caused years of chaos in this southeastern corner of the Democratic Republic of the Congo were pacified. The people who had fled their homes were back farming. The rains on which they depend were on time. But then the rains just didn’t stop. This season it poured – sometimes three times a day. The seeds diligently planted rotted underground. As a result up to 40,000 people are at risk of going hungry just in this small area of Katanga Province, according to Marrios Bwana Ngoshi Ilunga, of the NGO Solidarités International. Across the DRC as a whole, 550,000 people have been affected by rains and flooding between October and March as a result of an El Niño year. Three years ago, this region was known as the “triangle of death” – but for a very different reason. The Bakata-Katanga rebels, claiming to fight for the independence of mineral-rich Katanga, were busy looting and burning down villages, killing their inhabitants and forcibly recruiting others, in a swathe of territory between Pweto, Mitwaba and Manono. A series of offensives by the national army last year destroyed several rebel camps, weakening them. The number of displaced fell to 309,000 in 2015, as people began to return home, hopeful that a government amnesty for the rebels and a disarmament programme would succeed. In Kilangwa village, south of Kanyoka, there is already kwashiorkor – a severe form of protein-energy deficiency – among the children as a result of the failure of the bean and maize harvest.

Created Date: 06-10-2016
Last Updated Date: 06-10-2016
License: Link only