FAO/GIEWS - Foodcrops & Shortages 04/00 - GABON (29 March)
The main foodcrops are cassava and plantains but some maize is also produced (around 25 000 tonnes). The country commercially imports the bulk of its cereal requirement, estimated at around 82 000 tonnes in 2000. In a census conducted in November and December 1999 in Libreville, about 13 500 Congolese refugees were registered in Haut-Ogooue in the east and Nyanga in the southwest, the two provinces bordering Congo. Congolese refugees in two other provinces, Ngounie and Ogooue-Lolo, are estimated between 3 000 and 4 000. There are also about 1 500 people from other countries such as Angola, Chad, DRC, Equatorial Guinea and Rwanda. Food supplies for the refugees ran out in mid-February. WFP will provide some 12 000 refugees with 1 200 tonnes of food for six months.