Reuters AlertNet Full site
Homepage | Newsdesk | NGO Latest | Crisis briefings | Country profiles | MediaWatch | Jobs | Alerting | Login

NEWSDESK

ZIMBABWE: Hunger greater than previously thought
19 Dec 2008 16:39:48 GMT
 Source: IRIN

Background

•  Zimbabwe crisis

•  Food and hunger

•  African hunger

•  S. African hunger

•  Zimbabwe hunger

MORE >>
JOHANNESBURG , 19 December 2008 (IRIN) - The number of Zimbabweans requiring food assistance in the first quarter of 2009 has been revised upwards to 5.5 million people.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) spokesman for southern Africa, Richard Lee, told IRIN that "the situation was worse than anticipated", and the number of intended recipients had increased by 400,000, from an original figure of 5.1 million beneficiaries.

Food assistance is being provided by the WFP and the US-funded Consortium for Southern Africa Food Security Emergency (C-SAFE).

The April 2009 harvest is not expected to relieve to the country's food insecurity. Initial expectations were for "a poor harvest; how poor we don't know yet," Lee said.

"In all likelihood, another large-scale [feeding] operation will be needed throughout 2009, into 2010," he said.

South African President Kgalema Motlanthe, the current chairperson of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), a 14-member body of regional states, told reporters in Pretoria on 17 December that SADC members would be canvassed "to take urgent action to attend to the humanitarian crises in Zimbabwe and in the Democratic republic of Congo".

Motlanthe did not give any further details, but R300 million (US$31 million) in assistance to Zimbabwe, promised on condition that a power-sharing deal between rival political parties was finalised, has fallen by the wayside because of the delays.

"The R300 million was specifically for agricultural produce and, as you know, the planting season is almost over," he said.

The leader of the Zimbabwean opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), Morgan Tsvangirai, who is in Gaborone, the capital of neighbouring Botswana, threatened on 19 December to withdraw from a power-sharing agreement on 1 January 2009 if 42 MDC members, allegedly abducted by security forces, were not released by President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF government.

go/he

© IRIN. All rights reserved. More humanitarian news and analysis: http://www.IRINnews.org


AlertNet news is provided by
Email this article       Send comments

Topics

•  Food and hunger

MORE >>

Emergencies

•  African hunger

•  S. African hunger

•  Zimbabwe crisis

MORE >>

NGO latest

•  Massive food crisis imminent in the Horn of Africa reports Red Cross.
Red Cross - Ireland

•  Cholera and hunger: Zimbabwe's double disaster
ActionAid

•  Zimbabwe: Disinfecting homes to counter cholera
ICRC - Switzerland

•  Latest on the crisis in Zimbabwe - Jon Slater
Oxfam GB - UK

•  Migrant workers in Calabria, Italy, suffering intolerable living and working conditions
MSF International

MORE >>

Latest news

•  ZIMBABWE: Hunger greater than previously thought

•  CHAD: Tackling "alarming" malnutrition in west

•  Mugabe asks Tsvangirai to take up PM post

•  WFP to halve food aid to north Uganda in 2009

•  Tsvangirai threatens suspension of Zimbabwe talks

MORE >>

IRIN news

Background information

Briefings
African hunger - [Who works where]
S. African hunger - [Who works where]
Zimbabwe crisis - [Who works where]

Topics
Food and hunger
Facts & figures
Botswana Zimbabwe

Related articles

Breaking stories
 ZIMBABWE: Hunger greater than previously thought (1 minute ago)

CHAD: Tackling "alarming" malnutrition in west (1 minute ago)

AlertNet insight
 Island nations slam slow U.N. progress on climate adaptation (1 minute ago)

Aid agency news feed
 Massive food crisis imminent in the Horn of Africa reports Red Cross. (1 minute ago)

Blogs
 Hopes for Poznan climate change progress melting away (1 minute ago)

Maps
 MAP: Somalia: Food aid distribution (October 2008) (1 minute ago)


Del.icio.us Del.icio.us  |   Digg Digg  |   NewsVine NewsVine  |   Reddit Reddit   
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2008-12-17T180916Z_01_AFR04_RTRIDSP_2_ZIMBABWE_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/AFR04.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2008-12-17T180704Z_01_AFR03_RTRIDSP_2_ZIMBABWE_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/AFR03.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2008-12-17T180337Z_01_AFR02_RTRIDSP_2_ZIMBABWE_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/AFR02.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2008-12-17T180136Z_01_AFR01_RTRIDSP_2_ZIMBABWE_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/AFR01.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2008-12-12T134011Z_01_CAP02_RTRIDSP_2_ZIMBABWE-CRISIS_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/CAP02.htm

A Zimbabwean girl carries a bucket of water from a stream in Budiriro neighbourhood in Harare December 17, 2008. Zimbabwe's neighbours will launch an urgent humanitarian campaign in the hope of ...


More pictures | Galleries
Disclaimers |  Copyright |  Privacy |  Contact Us |  Feedback |  About Us |  RSS XML

Last updated:Fri Dec 19 16:40:02 2008