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Zim needs $118m food aid - WFP
02/08/2007 07:19 - (SA)
Johannesburg - The United Nations food agency on Wednesday appealed for $118m in expanded food aid for Zimbabwe and pledged to assist about 3.3 million starving citizens of that country.
The World Food Programme (WFP) said it planned to provide for the next eight months food aid to up to 3.3 million Zimbabweans facing severe food shortages.
WFP regional director Amir Abdulla said: "Hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans are already starting to run out of food and several million more will be reliant on humanitarian assistance by the end of the year.
"WFP plans to feed more than 10 times the current number of beneficiaries over the next eight months to avert the threat of widespread hunger but to do this we need more donations and we need them immediately."
'World's highest rate of inflation'
WFP had 138 000 metric tons of food already in stock or in the pipeline for Zimbabwe, but still needed another 207 000 tons of cereals and other commodities valued at $118m to cover its increased relief activities from now until April.
Without additional funds, WFP's food stocks would begin to run dry in September and would be completely exhausted by December, just as the crisis reaches its peak, it said.
In addition, a group of US-sponsored NGOs known as C-Safe planned to distribute food to another 800 000 vulnerable Zimbabweans, giving a combined total of 4.1 million people, it said.
Zimbabwe was in the throes of a chronic economic crisis with the world's highest rate of inflation and four in every five people jobless. About 80% of the population lived below the poverty threshold.
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