More food deaths in Zim
2004-09-12 16:37
Harare - Another nine people have died of hunger in the western city of Bulawayo, despite President Robert Mugabe's assertion that there is no famine in Zimbabwe, local media reported on Sunday.
The independent weekly Standard newspaper quoted figures from the Bulawayo city council's health department saying that the new deaths in August brought to 161 the number who have died this year of malnutrition in the city.
The figures contradict repeated assertions by Mugabe that the country is reaping a bumper harvest of 2.4 million tons of grain.
In May he ordered the world food programme, the UN famine relief arm, to wind up a food distribution programme that rescued up to 5 million people from famine in the last two years.
Critics have warned that Mugabe plans to use starvation as a political weapon in parliamentary elections due in March next year by issuing famine relief supplies only to those who vote for his ruling Zanu-PF.
Grain production has slumped after the government's seizure of almost the entire white commercial farming sector's land since 2000.
Food 'running out'
In contrast with Mugabe's claim of a harvest of 2.4 million tons, independent assessments have forecast production of about 1 million tons, not enough to meet national consumption of 1.8 million tons a year.
This weekend, the Food Security Network (Fosenet), an independent grouping of local aid agencies, said that food was running out in a growing number of areas.
The situation is not good at all, Fosenet programme manager Jonathan Kafesu was quoted as saying by Irin, the UN news agency.
"Our assessment has revealed that most grain marketing board (the state grain monopoly) depots are empty.
"It is a fact that people are starving, and something certainly needs to be done about it," he said.
UN officials, asking not to be named, said the WFP had 50 000 tons stored in Zimbabwe, but had been ordered by the government not to distribute it. - Sapa-dpa
- SAPA