Today's top news: Burundi

In 2022, following poor rains, Jeannine Miburo, 23, harvested less than a kg of maize in her land in Kirundo Province, northern Burundi. OCHA/Camille Marqui

Burundi

The UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths has allocated US$3.5 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to help more than 38,000 people affected by food insecurity.

The funds will support two World Food Programme and Food and Agriculture Organization projects bringing food assistance to people in immediate need, but also provide seeds and agricultural inputs for the future.

During the last part of 2022, Burundi was affected by several climatic hazards, first a delay of the rainy season, then torrential rains mixed with wind and hail.

Farming households - representing more than 90 per cent of the population – were unable able to set up the crops for the 2023 agricultural growing season. They now face an extended lean season, marked by the depletion of food reserves, an increase in the price of essential foodstuffs, and less opportunities for agricultural labour.

This new CERF allocation will support the most vulnerable households.