By Moyiga Nduru
NAIROBI, Aug 1 1997 (IPS)

The vast majority of the 1.2 million-odd former Rwandan refugees who had been relying wholly on relief food in the past six months will now have to fend for themselves, according to the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP).

The WFP said here on Friday that some food would be provided only for vulnerable groups and new arrivals in 153 communes across the tiny Central African country. “We will continue to carefully monitor the situation to help people as needs arise,” said Gerald van Dijk, WFP’s Country Director for Rwanda.

Since late January, hundreds of thousands of Rwandans have been receiving a monthly WFP food basket comprising 12.5 kilogrammes of cereals, beans, vegetable oil, salt and corn-soya blend, distributed to them in their home communues.

“This food has been essential for returning refugees who until now, have been totally reliant on relief food hand-outs,” said Brenda Barton, WFP Regional Information Officer, who is based in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

In November 1996, one month after war broke out in then eastern Zaire, more than one million Rwandan refugees started returning home from camps in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) and Tanzania.

Immediately, the government of Rwanda and relief agencies intervened to prevent what could have developed into a major emergency by ensuring that food was available in the refugees’ home areas within a maximum of one month.

The programme was part of an overall package provided by U.N. agencies and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to help integrate the returnees.

The refugees’ total number — including those who are yet to return — was estimated by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) at over 1.7 million. They had fled their country in July 1994 as rebels overthrew an extremist interim government during whose three month reign upward of 500,000 people were massacred.

“One of the ultimate aims of the programme was to help refugees quickly return to their home villages, thus avoiding the creation of camps,” said van Dijk.

Efforts were made to assist the returnees to rebuild their homes and repair their farms so that they could producing their own food.

The WFP said those who will receive food will include refugees who are still trickling across the borders into Rwanda. “They will receive WFP food assistance upon arrival,” said Barton.

However, the WFP says that it is concerned that the harvest in July — Rwanda’s main cropping season — has been less favourable than hoped.

According to recent WFP/Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimates, total crop production in the country will increase only marginally. Moreover, in the second part of 1997 Rwanda will have to feed 1.6 million more people than last year as a result of the influx of returnees.

The fact that some returnees were resettled too late to catch the country’s second planting season, along with land disputes and a lack of agricultural inputs has limited the expansion of land preparation. Late and irregular rains were also experienced in most of the country.

While total crop production should increase by six percent over the corresponding period of last year, this season’s output of pulses — the main source of protein for most Rwandans — is expected to fall by 25 percent, according to the WFP and FAO.

A survey the Save the Children Fund (UK) carried out on household food economy in the prefectures of Butare and Gikongoro found that refugees who returned to Rwanda before March 1997 will only be able to meet 60 to 70 percent of their income needs.

Many of the households with the most alarming income deficits had only one able-bodied adult, usually a widow, the Fund found. However in some prefectures such as Kibungo, where 500,000 people returned in December 1996, most households were reportedly becoming self-sufficient, indicating a return to normalcy for some of the repatriated refugees.

In areas like Butare and Gikongoro where extra food aid may be needed, WFP says it will maintain a safety net of food-for-work projects and possibly free food for those people who need to supplement their daily requirements.

The WFP said food-for-work activities it supported in 1996 had helped in the reclamation and rehabilitation of 3,642 hectares of farmland, while 400 ha of land were terraced to avoid soil erosion.

“Due to the overall need for continued assistance through food aid for both returning refugees and vulnerable Rwandans,” van Dijk said, “WFP plans to focus its operations in Rwanda for the remainder of 1997 on the rehabilitation of the agricultural production systems and destroyed infrastructure.

“Areas that are highly susceptible to drought and crop failure will continue to receive a large share of food assistance.”

He said in 1997 alone, WFP assistance will have contributed to the construction of 22,000 houses for returnees, and to the rehabilitation of thousands of hectares of swamp land.

“Some 450,000 other people each month will continue to be assisted through WFP food-for-work projects, and nutritional support programmes for vulnerable groups such as orphans, malnourished children and the elderly,” he added.

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