World Food Programme in Urgent Appeal to Feed Hungry Zimbabweans
World Food Programme in Urgent Appeal to Feed Hungry Zimbabweans
The World Food Programme launched an urgent appeal for $250 million to prevent millions of Zimbabweans plunging deeper into hunger.
The WFP, a United Nations body, expects 8.6 million Zimbabweans to be food insecure by the end of this year. That’s “a staggering 60% of the population,” it said in an emailed statement.
Three successive droughts, economic recession, soaring inflation and now the coronavirus pandemic have impacted the southern African nation. Corn prices doubled last month, forcing families to sell possessions to feed themselves, the WFP said. The country harvested only 1.1 million tons of corn, the staple food, against annual demand of about 2.4 million tons.
“We need the international community to step up now to help us prevent a potential humanitarian catastrophe,” Lola Castro, the WFP regional director for southern Africa, said in the statement.
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