SOUTHERN AFRICA HUNGER REPORTS: 12.8 MILLION LIVES AT RISKS


Joint UN missions to six southern African countries show that 12.8 million people are on the brink of starvation after one of the region's worst agricultural disasters in a decade.

June 7, 2002 - Millions of people in southern African countries are living on the brink of starvation and need immediate food aid, according to joint reports published by WFP and the Food & Agricultural Organisation (FAO).

The reports, based on recent WFP/FAO missions to Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe, warn that some 12.8 million people face serious food shortages until the region's next main harvest in April 2003.

We see this as a crisis of enormous proportions. The situation worsens with each day
Jean-Jacques Graisse, WFP Deputy Executive Director

"We see this as a crisis of enormous proportions. The situation worsens with each day," said Jean-Jacques Graisse, WFP's Deputy Executive Director.

Given the gravity of the findings by the assessment missions, the two UN agencies have called on donor governments world-wide for rapid donations to avert an humanitarian crisis.

WFP, which is already feeding 2.6 million people across the region, plans to launch a major regional appeal in early July to take account of the new figures.

Some 1.2 million metric tonnes of emergency food aid is needed immediately to relieve the hungry.

Over the next year, nearly four million metric tonnes of food will have to be imported to meet the minimum needs of the affected people.


WORST FOOD CRISIS IN A DECADE

The WFP/FAO missions, which brought together leading agricultural and food vulnerability experts, have confirmed growing fears that southern Africa faces its worst agricultural disaster in a decade.

A series of natural and man-made factors have slashed food output and availability across the region.

•   Two successive years of poor harvests   caused by drought
  
  
•   Economic crises
  
  
•   Disruption of farming activities
  
  
•   Soaring prices of staple food maize

The teams were particularly struck by the scarcity of maize at harvest time. Even in a poor year, at least some maize is normally available for a few months or weeks in markets and homes.

In many places, this is the second or third consecutive year of food shortages and many people's so-called 'coping mechanisms', such as selling livestock to pay for food, are exhausted.

Today, they are fighting for survival.