Zimbabwe Distributes Food Aid to People in Cities for First Time

(Bloomberg) -- Zimbabwe’s government said it distributed almost 190,000 metric tons of maize to households in rural and urban areas, marking the first time ever it’s had to distribute food to people in cities.

“There’s increasing hunger in both rural and urban areas,” Sekai Nzenza, the country’s public service, labour and social welfare minister, told reporters on Tuesday.

Drought and an economic crisis have caused widespread food insecurity that may affect as many as 5.5 million people, more than half of the population, according to a report earlier this month from the government and the United Nations World Food Programme.

About $218 million and almost 820,000 tons of cereal are needed to see people through to next year’s harvests, the authors of the report said.

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