Zimbabwe: U.S. Warns of Humanitarian Disaster

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SW Radio Africa (London)

28 August 2008
Posted to the web 28 August 2008

Alex Bell

United States ambassador to Zimbabwe, James McGee has warned that the country faces a humanitarian disaster because of the continued ban on NGO food aid.

The ban was announced during the run up to the election run-off in June, after Welfare Minister Nicholas Goche accused aid groups of supporting the MDC's campaign during the first round of elections in March. The ban forced NGOs to suspend their desperately needed aid operations, and has now left millions of Zimbabweans facing starvation in a situation that is becoming increasingly desperate.

In rural areas of Mashonaland East and Manicaland maize supplies have dried up and households that previously produced maize on their homestead plots have been hit by poor harvests, made worse by the lack of fertiliser. At the same time, according to a report by the Food and Agricultural Organisation and the World Food Programme, more than 5 million Zimbabweans will suffer food insecurity in the next nine months because of poor harvest projections.

The report said it estimates that, "2.04 million people in rural and urban areas will be food insecure between July and September 2008, rising to 3.8 million people by October and peaking to about 5.1 million at the height of the hungry season between January and March 2009."

The dire situation has seen the Red Cross federation issue an urgent appeal for more than 20 million US dollars in emergency food aid. The food packages are set to be distributed to almost 300 000 of the country's most desperate people from September.

Matthew Cochrane from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies based in Johannesburg, told Newsreel on Thursday the emergency food aid initiative is the start of a comprehensive 6 month "recovery" programme. He said that the organisation's primary focus is getting aid to the "most desperate," including the elderly and people living with HIV/AIDS. But Cochrane added that it is "critical that more food aid comes" to start easing the desperate humanitarian situation in Zimbabwe.

The Red Cross was one of the few organisations not affected by the government's ban on aid. But Cochrane said although its efforts have continued, it is "unrealistic" for one group to provide aid for an entire nation' and said the operations of other aid groups is urgently needed.

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