UN Agency Seeks Extra $204m For Zimbabwe As Hunger Bites

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) yesterday appealed for an additional 204 million dollars to support four million of the most food insecure Zimbabweans for the next six months.
Francesca Erdelmann, WFP Zimbabwe’s representative said this in Harare.
Drought in 2019 and this year have left millions facing hunger.
That includes about one-third of the rural population, who are expected to face “crisis’’ or “emergency’’ levels of hunger, and 2.3 million hungry urban dwellers, WFP said.
An economic recession during the past two years has compounded the problem for the country of 15 million people.
“We are deeply concerned that if WFP does not receive enough funding to reach the four million people it intends to, families will be further pushed to the limit,” Erdelmann said.
The additional funding would allow WFP to provide the minimum amount of emergency food assistance to the most vulnerable 3.5 million rural and 550,000 urban citizens.
While COVID-19 had aggravated food insecurity in both rural and urban areas of the country, WFP said many of its traditional donors were also struggling in the wake of the impact of the pandemic on their own economies.
Zimbabwe spent 458 million dollars importing food, mostly grains during the first nine months of this year compared to 140.5 million dollars during the same period in 2019, according to treasury data.