Southern Africa faces the worst conditions for famine and disease in 10 years. Bad weather, poverty and political violence have led world agencies to warn that more than five million Africans are on the brink of requiring food aid.
Many of the affected areas have suffered food shortages over the last two or three years and some scientists predict that the El Niño weather phenomenon will cause trouble for next year’s crop as well.
More Africans were hit by food shortages in 1991-92, but those problems were caused by drought alone. “What we’re dealing with now is a much starker problem – it’s droughts combined with economic problems. This is going to be more difficult to get out of,” says UN World Food Program (WFP) regional information officer Brenda Barton, speaking from Zimbabwe.
The WFP, in a combined effort with other organisations such as the Food and Agriculture Organization and the African-based Famine Early Warning Systems Network, is currently assessing six countries in the area facing serious problems.
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Barton says they cannot be sure of the numbers affected until full reports come back on 6 June. “It could easily be more than five million,” she says. They expect the worst time of the year will be in September.
Empty breadbasket
Zimbabwe, usually one of Africa’s “breadbaskets”, is now expected to reap just a third of its average maize crop this year. The country will need to import a 1.77 million tonnes of corn to feed its 13 million people until the next harvest in March 2003.
President Robert Mugabe declared much of Zimbabwe a state of disaster in April, saying that more than half of the country will need food aid this year.
Malnutrition is also expected to have devastating effects on health. “One can expect the death toll of HIV/AIDS will rise because of the lack of food,” says Victor Angelo, the UN resident co-ordinator for Zimbabwe.
Elsewhere, Malawi is facing the worst famine it has experienced in 50 years and spring floods have triggered its worst ever cholera epidemic. Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland and Zambia are also affected by food shortages.
“All indicators show us we are entering into a deep crisis, and if nothing is done, we will see famine and death in some of these countries,” says Zahra Nuru, the UN resident co-ordinator for Malawi.
UN officials met in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe at the weekend to organise plans to deal with the food shortages. The European Commission contributed nearly $6 million to Zimbabwe’s cause in May. Barton says these contributions are appreciated, but are not enough: “We need $60 million just to feed 500,000 people in Zimbabwe.”
