The ICRC has completed the distribution of 175 metric tonnes of seed, tools and basic household items to about 17,000 families affected by the conflict in the provinces of North Katanga, North Kivu and South Kivu in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

During the three-week operation, timed to come ahead of September's rains and the annual planting season, ICRC-chartered aircraft flew high-quality bean, peanut and maize seed along with other supplies into North Katanga, while truck convoys serviced North Kivu and South Kivu.

The distributions were carried out following several weeks of field surveys by ICRC teams, including agronomists, who identified a decline in the quality of local seed and a lack of access to basic agricultural supplies resulting from the poverty brought on by years of fighting in the region.

The seed was produced by the National Institute of Agronomic Research in Bukavu as part of a sizeable multiplication programme backed by the ICRC in a bid to guarantee the quality of local seed and revive the seed production industry in the region.

In North Katanga, where conflict has left the province's road network all but unusable and where people who have lost most of their belongings are returning to destroyed homes, three separate air operations delivered supplies to 3,105 families in 25 villages in the Kabalo area and to 3,949 families in 67 villages in the Manono area.

In South Kivu, in the Kalehe area, 3,287 displaced families still too scared to return home also received a small quantity of seed, cooking pots and hoes.

In North Kivu's mountainous Masisi area, the operation targeted 4,787 recently returned families, providing agricultural support and protection from bad weather and illness in the form of blankets, clothing and soap. Some of the families said the assistance would enable them to start earning enough money to send their children back to school. Supplies were also distributed to 1,974 families who had returned to their homes around Mount Nyiragongo, close to Goma, after having been displaced by both fighting and the volcano's eruption in January.

The ICRC is hoping to carry out similar distributions elsewhere in the eastern part of the country where the population continues to suffer the effects of armed conflict.