Zimbabwe food crisis worsens with few signs of corn imports
INTERNATIONAL – Zimbabwe insists it’s prepared to deal with a deepening food crisis, but the United Nations says that so far there’s little evidence that enough corn is coming in to feed the drought-stricken nation’s 8.5 million people, nearly half the population, who are going hungry.
Agriculture Minister Perence Shiri said there’s less than a month’s supply, or 100,000 tons, of the staple grain in the southern African nation, according to Zimbabwe’s NewsDay newspaper. That compares with a supply gap that’s expected to be around 1 million tons. While the government said it’s started importing food, UN officials say there’s no sign of it.
“The situation has not changed a bit,” Eddie Rowe, the UN World Food Programme’s country director in Zimbabwe, said by phone on Wednesday from the capital, Harare. “We do not see anything coming in.”
Source: iol.co.za