WFP preparing to provide food aid to 1.1 million Zimbabweans

Growing food prices and the country's dire economic state could also affect those living in urban areas, the UN food agency added.

FILE: Protesters marched from the MDC headquarters to the ZEC office at Rainbow Towers, Harare, to protest against the election process on 1 August 2018. They were met by riot police armed with rubber bullets, tear gas, and AKs. Picture: Thomas Holder/EWN

AFP | 323 days ago

LONDON – The World Food Programme said on Friday that it is preparing to provide food aid to 1.1 million Zimbabweans before the next harvest in 2019, as rural smallholders face shortages.

Growing food prices and the country's dire economic state could also affect those living in urban areas, the UN food agency added.

"WFP plans to address the most urgent food security needs of 1,135,500 people during the peak of the 2018-19 lean season," said the agency's Zimbabwe spokesperson Ashley Baxstrom in a statement.

"Vulnerable groups are always disproportionately affected by adverse conditions (and) shocks."

The WFP said that $71.2 million would be needed for the planned response, with $22 million already raised, largely from USAID.

The Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee's 2018 Rural Livelihoods Assessment Report suggested that more than 2.4 million people will be food insecure during the peak of the 2018-19 lean season.

The WFP's statement follows a report by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network which said poor families in arid areas of Zimbabwe are running out of food.

"These food security outcomes are expected to persist through March 2019," said the network on its website.

Livestock conditions were also deteriorating across the country due to water shortages and poor pasture, it added.

Zimbabwe is battling an economic crisis that includes cash shortages, high unemployment and lack of investment which has caused the cost of imported food to soar.

Newly-inaugurated President Emmerson Mnangagwa has vowed to fix the country's economy after he was sworn in following 30 July elections, the results of which were disputed by the main opposition party.

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