UN Warns About Growing Food Crisis in Zim

The United Nations have warned about an increase in food scarcity in Zimbabwe, as the country is still being hit hard by the drought.

Because of the lack of rain, the food crisis has continued to escalate in the country, leaving locals without food or water in many areas of the country.

According to the UN, there is also a $290 million shortfall in funding for the country, that would be required to feed the close to 5 million people within the next year.

The United Nations’ World Food Programme (the WFP) has said that failed crops and dying cattle due to the lack of rain has seriously hampered the food outlook for the country:

“…The general outlook is the food security situation in Zimbabwe from now right up to March 2017 is bleak…Rains received in March-April have marginally improved the situation. For most, however, it was too late to revive failed crops. There are quite a number of districts that are still feeling the full brunt of El Nino,” Eddie Rowe of the WFP said.

The weather phenomenon known as El Nino is to blame for the harsh weather conditions in the sub-Saharan African countries, as well as causing trouble in other parts of the world, too.

The effects of the drought seems to be most prevalent on children, as many children are dropping out of school due to hunger. The child malnutrition rate in the country has also soared.

According to a report by the UN’s Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on the drought, the malnutrition of Zimbabwean children are the highest it’s been in the past 15 years.

“…Children are dropping out of school and waking up in the middle of the night so that they can find and collect clean water…In Zimbabwe, 6 000 children in Matabeleland North have dropped out of school, citing hunger and the need to help out with house or farm work,” the report read.