FAO/GIEWS - Foodcrops & Shortages 11/00 - CONGO, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF* (8 November)

CONGO, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF* (8 November)

The food supply situation continues to deteriorate with the persistent civil war that has disrupted all economic and agricultural activities and displaced some 1.8 million people.

In reaction to this mounting economic and food security crisis, the Government of DRC requested FAO to send a mission to assess the food situation in the capital city, Kinshasa, and the surrounding provinces of Bas-Congo and Bandundu, which supply a significant proportion of the city’s food requirements. An assessment of the situation for the whole country could not be undertaken due to the on-going war.

The FAO Mission visited the country from 20 September to 10 October 2000. From an analysis of the available data on domestic food supply and requirements, the Mission estimated Kinshasa’s food deficit in 2000 at 1 million tonnes compared to 954 000 tonnes in 1999. Food aid currently being provided targets the most vulnerable groups such as children and the war-displaced people, while the hungry poor must fend for themselves. Coping mechanisms such as eating less food, having fewer meals and growing vegetables in household compounds have been stretched to the limit. 70 percent of the population, which is currently estimated at between 6-7 million, cannot afford US$1 a day for food. Chronic malnutrition affects 18 percent of children in the inner city and over 30 percent in the outskirts where war-displaced people have been settling.

The main factors constraining food supply to Kinshasa include the extreme state of disrepair of the road infrastructure, particularly the Kinshasa-Matadi and Kinshasa-Kikwit roads, as well as feeder roads; police/military harassment of shippers, traders and farmers; the cut-off of food supply from Equateur and Eastern Provinces due to the ongoing war; the scarcity of fuel due to a shortage of foreign exchange; and the overvalued official exchange rate which is pushing business transactions to the parallel market.

The Mission recommended that the Government move to enforce its directives against police/military harassment and illegal levies at road check points, ports and market places. Secondly, it should unify the official and parallel exchange rates by devaluation of the Congolese franc. This should result in increases in tax revenues and supply of hard currency in the banking system, and hence the supply of currently scarce imported commodities such as fuel.

While revamping the whole transport infrastructure is a long term endeavour, donors should assist the Government to urgently repair critical sections of main roads leading to Kinshasa, with priority given to the Bangu-Tumba section (109 km) on the Matadi road, and the Mosango-Masimanimba and Kwango-Kenge sections totalling 80 km on the Kikwit road. This will be a major step towards restoring the normal flow of foodstuffs to the capital. In addition, assistance to provincial authorities and local communities for feeder road maintenance should be substantially increased.

The international community should also urge the Government and rebel groups in the ongoing conflict to establish humanitarian corridors, which would allow a resumption of food and other trade between Kinshasa and the eastern and northern provinces. For Kinshasa, the establishment of such a corridor with Equateur Province would have immediate beneficial effects on food supply as considerable stocks of cassava, maize and palm oil are reported to be available in that province.

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