Does Zimbabwe need Food Aid?
There is no question that food aid is necessary in this country; the lethal cocktail of aids, poverty and malnutrition is quietly killing 3500 every week. While the Mugabe regime is clearly the responsible party for these killings, the victims of this regime cannot be made to suffer more by withholding food aid from them in a bid to punish the government. If anyone needs to be convinced of the need for food aid, they should read the latest Fews Net report on the hunger situation: • 1.4 million rural people (perhaps even more) will not have adequate food during the peak hunger period • the CSO food poverty line went up almost ten times between December 2005 and November 2006; it increased by an average of 23 percent every month during this period • in November 2006, more than 3 000 MT of food was distributed to at least 500 000 people • The forecast is for below normal rainfall for almost the whole country • domestic wheat production is expected to yield less than 135 000 MT, against a
