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Burundi bans exports to stem food shortage

Tuesday October 25 2016

Insecurity and an economic downturn in Burundi have led to a disruption of markets and farming, leaving more than 2.3 million people severely food insecure.

The country has been in political turmoil since opposition to President Pierre Nkurunziza’s third term mid last year led to fighting resulting in deaths and displacement.

And now hunger.

In August, Burundi’s Agriculture Minister Deo Guide Rurema unveiled measures to alleviate food shortages that included an export ban.

“We urge all farmers to use government-managed warehouses in each province to prevent people from misusing their harvest. This is necessary to manage the current food shortages as the recent rains were heavier and longer than normal, meaning that the dry season may be longer,” Mr Rurema said.

READ: Prices soar in Rwanda as Burundi’s ban on food exports bites

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Humanitarian aid

“We have so far received $39.7 million in humanitarian aid from the European Union since the start of the crisis. Funds are used to meet the basic needs of refugees in the host countries,” Jerry Bailey, deputy country director at the World Food Programme (WFP) Tanzania said.

WFP has been providing dry food rations to the Burundi refugees in Tanzania. By last week, a total of 36,341 tonnes of food supplies have been distributed to over 167,000 new Burundian refugees.

Several parts of the country are facing acute food shortages and the rest of the Burundi remains at slightly above stress levels.

“Above-average rainfall since mid-September, even in the East, has aided land preparation and planting for 2017, but the September season harvest is small in terms of overall production, hence the poor food availability. This means that 2.3 million people are food insecure for a period of three to eight months,” an assessment report by Relief Web reads.

Meanwhile, aid agencies say that malaria has reached its highest levels in five years, with 5.03 million cases in the first half of this year.

Subsistence agriculture accounts for 90 per cent of agriculture in Burundi, and any slowdown in production puts the country’s food reserves at risks. According to the World Economic Forum, Burundi’s total GDP declined to $2.9 billion in 2015, from $3.09 billion in 2014.

Last week, the country said that its tax collection rose nearly 20 per cent in the third quarter of 2016, to $102.25 million from $84.2 million in the same period last year.

Sentore Donatien, the head of Burundi’s Office of Revenue, said that improved security helped the economy grow by 2 per cent in the year to September.

“People are now back to work, industries have reopened due to the prevailing security. The taxes for the third quarter of 2016 exceeded the target of $87.06 million, and the cumulative tax from the first nine months of 2016 was up 10 per cent from the same time last year, from $253.2 million to $278.7 million,” Mr Donatien said.

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