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From Africa Recovery, Vol.18 #1 (April 2004), Watch page SOUTHERN AFRICA A third successive year of drought has devastated the harvest in Southern Africa and will leave millions of people at risk of hunger over the coming year, the World Food Programme (WFP) predicts. Two of the six countries most affected, Lesotho and Swaziland, have already declared national emergencies, while estimates of the number of people in need of food aid in Zimbabwe alone exceed 7.5 million - nearly 60 per cent of that country's total population. The other countries expected to need food assistance are Mozambique, Zambia and Malawi. The causes - drought, the late arrival of the seasonal rains and a severe shortage of seed, fertilizer and other inputs - have been exacerbated by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The disease has devastated the agricultural workforce, weakened community coping mechanisms and left tens of thousands of families too poor to purchase food supplies. Although accurate harvest figures will only be available in May, Swazi government officials report that the total area planted is just 40 per cent of last year's acreage, and much of that is wilting from high temperatures and drought. Since July 2003, WFP reports, it has provided 290,000 tonnes
of food to nearly 5 million people in the area. But rations in
Zimbabwe were halved late last year in the face of a $95 mn shortfall
in donations. A reduced harvest in drought-stricken South Africa,
the region's breadbasket, is expected to worsen the funding crunch
by driving up the price of the staple food, maize, and forcing
WFP to rely on costly imports. This article may be freely reproduced, with attribution to
"Africa Recovery, United Nations". Africa Recovery Tel: (212) 963-6857
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