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Food Agency Cuts Zimbabwe Rations and Warns of Shortages
A shortfall of international aid has forced the World Food Program to halve the food ration for 2.6 million malnourished people in Zimbabwe, and aid officials say supplies for that country of some staples like cooking oil will completely run out early next month.
| "Bob? You see that light at the end of the tunnel? That's a fire." |
Spokesmen for the organization said the shortages could soon extend to five other southern African countries, where a combination of drought and insufficient donations threatens to worsen hunger problems when the harvest season begins early next year. In a news release on Monday, the food program said it had cut its basic ration of cornmeal in Zimbabwe from nearly 12 ounces a day to about 6, largely because emergency food stocks in Zimbabwe were running low and donations from outside were insufficient to replenish them. The remaining monthly rations â about a quart of cooking oil and two pounds of beans or peas â were continuing, an official said. But even those stocks are expected to run out altogether early next month. "Unfortunately January, February and March are the key hungry months before the harvest," Richard Lee, the program's Johannesburg information officer, said in a telephone interview. "Zimbabwe's situation is by far the worst." Michael Huggins, the agency's regional information director for southern Africa, said in an interview that the agency needed an increase in cash donations to be able to respond quickly to the imminent shortage in Zimbabwe, the former breadbasket of Africa.
| "So pony up, boys! Kick in the cash you worked to earn to bail out Zim, where Bob's screwed up what he hasn't stolen. Do it for The Childrenâ¢." |
The United Nations-based program is trying to feed 6.5 million hungry people in Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Lesotho and Swaziland. Four million recipients live in Zimbabwe, where large-scale agriculture has all but collapsed since President Robert Mugabe began seizing commercial farms from their white owners in 2000 in a plan to redress misdeeds committed under colonial rule.
| Oh, that worked well, didn't it? |
Because of earlier shortages, the World Food Program says, it had been able to feed only 2.6 million of those needy people in Zimbabwe. Their rations will now be cut to the newly announced level.
| Tough for them, isn't it? Maybe they should go to more ZANU-PF rallies, where free lunches seem to still be in vogue. |
Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2003-12-24 |
