Food shortage crisis set to worsen in SADC region

Droughts have resulted in bad yields for the SADC region

By Thami Dickson
The United Nations (UN) says the deteriorating economic situation in Zimbabwe and the severe natural disasters in Swaziland, Lesotho and Mozambique have worsened the food shortage crises in Southern Africa. The body has warned millions will go hungry, unless aid comes in fast.

In a status report of the humanitarian situation in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, the world body says several countries are severely affected by a deadly combination of food insecurity, weakened government capacity to provide basic services and a high prevalence of HIV/Aids

Launching a $16 million appeal for Swaziland's worst drought in more than a decade, the world body says millions of people in the SADC region are feared to go hungry next year if the world does not act now.

Zimbabwe will be the hardest hit
With Swaziland suffering its worst harvest ever, and Zimbabwe bearing the double burden of food shortages and economic turmoil, southern Africa is bracing itself for a looming crisis of severe food shortages in early 2008. Zimbabwe will be the hardest hit, says the report.

Earlier this year, the UN made a financial appeal of $241 million to alleviate the Zimbabwean humanitarian crisis. They have received half of that amount so far.

John Holmes, the head of UN humanitarian affairs, said: “The anticipation is that some four million people, which is a third of the population, will need food assistance by the first quarter of 2008… The situation there is not helped by the general economic turbulence and the fact that 12% of the population is suffering from HIV/Aids.”

Funding problem
The UN's World Food Programme is already facing a critical shortfall in funding for all its operations in southern Africa, and it needs $100 million to take it to the end of the year.

It has also made financial appeals of $24 million to help Mozambique and $16 million to bail out Swaziland - whose government has declared the food shortages a national disaster. The high prevalence of HIV/Aids in southern Africa is also seen as complicating the food crisis in the region.