Zimbabwe facing hunger as heat, drought threaten crops

Around 2.2 million people, 18 percent of Zimbabwe’s population, will face food insecurity through March, according to recent estimates. This is up from 1.7 million Zimbabweans who needed food assistance from October to December of 2009.

The Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWSNET) states, “Since December, below-average precipitation and above-average temperatures continue to help strengthen seasonal moisture deficits across central Mozambique, southern Malawi, southern Madagascar and southern Zimbabwe.”

The United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) has declared it will increase efforts to deliver aid, although its Zimbabwean operation faced a decrease in funding and faces a shortage of 35,000 metric tons of food. To make up for the shortfall, WFP and a non-governmental organization, Concern Worldwide, have created a project to increase cash flow and food assistance to beneficiaries in Zimbabwe.

Full story: ZimOnline