5 Million May Be at Risk of Starvation in Zimbabwe, Says WFP

Crisis Policy Forum, Food Security: Africa, Human Health ::

14 November 2008 :: by Denver Lessing

CafeSentido.com :: The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) has warned that shortfalls in food aid to Zimbabwe could leave as many as 5.1 million people at risk of starvation by early next year. The southern African nation, beset by incomprehensible rates of inflation and an agricultural crisis, is now facing what may be the single most severe food security crisis in the world. WFP has made the announcement in conjunction with a cut in aid to Zimbabwe, due to lack of funding and a failed drive to raise funds to increase aid to the troubled state.

WFP has had to reduce its aid to 4 million Zimbabweans, even as ultra-hyperinflation —reaching levels of 231 million %, where numbers are basically meaningless—, an ongoing political stalement over shared control of government ministries, and drought, combine to set the nation on course to total crisis. WFP provided direct food aid to 2 million Zimbabweans in October and projects having to feed 5.1 million by the first months of 2009.

The UN agency had made an urgent appeal to international donors —mostly governments— for backing for an expansion of its efforts in Zimbabwe and reports getting “no response at all”, according to the BBC. The nation’s ongoing political crisis may be to blame for the lack of response, along with mounting international hostility to the regime of revolutionary turned autocrat Robert Mugabe, accused of rigging this spring’s presidential election and fomenting violence against the opposition.

A pervasive ongoing drought is affecting Zimbabwe’s food security situation, and is both contributing to and exacerbated by the vicious cycle of ultra-hyperinflation. According to the BBC:

The economic collapse in Zimbabwe has affected people across the country, and also in urban areas, so we are seeing large numbers of people across the country who simply cannot access enough food for themselves and their families, and require international assistance to see them through to the next harvest in April 2009.

As the political situation and civil infrastructure have deteriorated, and are now virtually beyond the control of government ministries, cholera outbreaks have become more common and deadly in the capital Harare. Governments across the region are described as being “increasingly impatient” with the Mugabe regime, and are urging him to make the most viable deal, no matter how painful for him and his interests, with the opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who has been repeated arrested and even physically abused by authorities since winning more votes in the 2008 presidential election.

Tsvangirai last week warned the world that there was a very real risk of 1 million people dying of starvation in Zimbabwe within 1 year, if action is not taken to prevent that humanitarian catastrophe. Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has been negotiating in fits and starts with an intransigent ruling Zanu-PF party for control of strategic government ministries, including agriculture and the police. Foreign diplomats have urged the two sides to share equal control of the police to resolve the impasse.