The World Food Program has supplied emergency food aid to more than 86 000 people since the outbreak last August.

The World Health Organization says the tenth outbreak of EBOLA in the Democratic Republic of Congo is the second largest in history.

More than 330 people have died of the haemorrhagic disease afflicting  North Kivu and Ituri provinces and threatening to spread further.

The WHO estimates there are 200 people carrying the virus who have not been treated by medical response teams.

More worrying is the fact that many of the 580 cases have been contracted from unknown sources.

EBOLA is spreading because the outbreak is located in an active conflict zone where militia have been killing civilians for years and show no inclination to work with medical response teams.

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Of particular concern are more than 400 000 children under five suffering acute malnutrition.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, the World Food Programme and the UN Children’s Fund UNICEF say conflict in Kasai province has caused farmers to miss three consecutive planting seasons.

750 000 people remain displaced.

620 000 returned to their burned out farms having hidden for years in the forest.

The agencies are making a public appeal for help because fewer than half a million of the 3,2 million food insecure people in Kasai have been getting help.

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It’s  appealing for $204 million immediately to purchase food and transport it to the region to help millions of hungry people.

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World Food Programme  Executive Director Ertharin Cousin says in a telephone briefing from Malawi that 18 million people need emergency food assistance in seven countries severely affected by El Nino — Lesotho, Madagascar, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi.

She says  WFP is anticipating an escalation in needs later this year and estimates that approximately 33 million people will be impacted by El Nino and the upcoming La Nina, which could bring severe flooding.

Cousin points to a more than 150 percent increase in people without enough to eat in Malawi as well as a 99 percent increase in Swaziland and a 53 percent increase in Lesotho.

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