African Church Information Service, November 10, 2003
Bhekisipho Nyathi, Harare
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has said that 6.5 million people
in Southern Africa will face severe hunger at the most critical time of next
year, unless it receives immediate donations.
In a recent statement, the relief agency said more than two thirds of people in
need of food aid were in Zimbabwe, where a series of droughts, and economic
collapse blamed on the unstable political environment, have resulted in severe
food shortages.
"Generous contributions have helped to stave off immediate cuts in WFP food
distributions, but from January, countries across the region are confronted by
the three-month lean season," said Mike Sackett, WFP Regional Director for
southern Africa.
"Supplies of locally produced food in critical areas will be scarce and people's
ability to cope is already limited because of the food shortages of recent
years," he continued.
The regional food situation is further complicated by the fact that southern
Africa has the highest HIV prevalence in the world.
There has been an alarming increase in the number of households headed by
children, the chronically ill or grandparents. Moreover, because HIV/AIDS has
devastated agricultural productivity, food shortages and chronic poverty are
likely to persist for many years to come.
"If we are ever to turn this situation around, we need to ensure those with
HIV/AIDS have access to life-sustaining food so that families survive," Sackett
said, noting: "Once the family unit starts to unravel, social and economic
problems pitch people - many of them children - into a calamity from which it is
extremely difficult, if not impossible, to emerge."
WFP has been carrying out emergency food support in the region since 2001. The
peak of the operations was reached last year, when 10.2 million people received
WFP food aid.