By Heba Girgis
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

HARARE, Zimbabwe—At the United Nations on Friday, a United Nations official in charge of humanitarian affairs recognized the growing food insecurity emergency in the southern region of Africa. The United Nations deputy humanitarian chief said that food shortages are “a chronic problem” in southern Africa. The chief also noted that more than 5.5 million people in a total of eight countries need aid this year, which is a 40 percent increase compared to last year.

Deputy Humanitarian Chief Catherine Bragg concluded a five-day visit to the south African region where she noted that this “chronic problem” is due to the impact of recurrent natural disasters including droughts and floods and the rising cost of food.

Bragg said, “Regional food production has been weakened by recurrent disasters. In Lesotho, about a third of the population does not have enough food to eat or sell. In Zimbabwe, 1.6 million people are expected to be food insecure and many families are selling their own livestock to cope with this dire situation. “ About 10 years of seizures of commercial farms has completely disrupted food production in Zimbabwe, which is a former regional breadbasket of Africa. USAID estimates that Zimbabwe produces about half of the two million metric tons of cereal necessary to feed the country’s entire population.

The people who are most affected by this are the people in the rural areas, which are located in the drier regions of the country. Zimbabwe however, is not real stranger to the devastation of drought. Since the early 1980s, the country has suffered from insufficient rain more than a dozen times, even though during the first 10 years of its independence, Zimbabwe has generally been able to meet its food requirements and avert famine while dealing with several serious droughts.

Despite the country’s efforts, the climate change became more dangerous. Zimbabwe’s rainfall became even more erratic between 2003 and 2012.

To try to ameliorate these struggles, Bragg has called on countries and partners in the region in order to strengthen their efforts to work as a team to promote disaster preparedness and to tackle this issue of food insecurity.

 

For further information, please see:

IOL News – UN: Southern Africa Shortages Worsen – 21 October 2012

Boston.com – UN: Southern Africa Food Shortages Worsen – 20 October 2012

The Windsor Star – UN Humanitarian Official Says Southern Africa Shortages 40 Percent Worse in 2012 – 20 October 2012

All Africa – Food Security in Crisis – 19 October 2012