FOOD AID AND NUTRITIONAL PROGRAMS DURING THE RWANDAN EMERGENCY

In contrast to several other recent emergencies,(1) the response of th e international relief community to the Rwandan emergency appears larg ely to have prevented widespread malnutrition and related mortality. W hile it is true that aspects of the response in the food and nutrition sector were in various ways open to criticism and may have contribute d to unnecessarily high levels of wasting in some camps at various poi nts in time, the appalling excesses of famine witnessed in other recen t African crises was not revisited during this emergency. Indeed, the main factors contributing to mortality and morbidity during the Rwanda n emergency were violence and epidemics rather than lack of food and n utritional support.