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Zim food crisis worsens
28/11/2002 21:17 - (SA)
Harare - Food shortages are worsening in Zimbabwe and aid agencies are struggling to meet demands for emergency relief supplies, the UN's food agency said in a statement on Thursday.
The World Food Programme (WFP) said "food imports by both the government and humanitarian agencies are falling far short of the amount required to feed the Zimbabwean people".
Some 6.7 million people, or half the southern African country's population are threatened with famine due to food shortages.
Aid agencies blame the shortages on a drought and disturbances to commercial agriculture due to a land reform programme.
"WFP does not even have the resources to meet our target of three million beneficiaries in November," the humanitarian agency's Zimbabwe representative, Kevin Farrell, said in the statement.
"It is an extremely serious situation and it is only going to get worse," he added.
WFP and the Zimbabwe government face a shortfall of well over 300 000 tons between now and March 2003, when the next harvest is due, the agency said.
"We will all have to work non-stop over the coming months if we are to prevent millions of people from starving in Zimbabwe," said Farrell.
Desperate families in rural Zimbabwe have resorted to eating poisonous fruit and plant tubers to survive, the statement said.
The situation was made worse by the Zimbabwe government's delay in registering the WFP's food distribution partners.
The government's insistence that genetically-modified maize be milled before distribution to avoid contamination of the environment has also slowed down distribution of food relief, the agency noted.
Zimbabwe is among six southern African countries, including Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland and Zambia where more than 14 million people are threatened by famine. - Sapa-AFP
- SAPA
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