Hunger

According to newspaper reports, at least 2 600 people have fled unrest in Mozambique and are now living in makeshift camps in Chipinge district of south-eastern Zimbabwe where food is running short.

The latest figure is a sharp increase on the early August tally of 712 Mozambicans who are reported to have fled into Zimbabwe in recent months to escape alleged attacks by opposition Renamo fighters.

According to the Manica Post newspaper, conditions are often grim for those arriving in Chipinge, with water and food shortages at a camp in Mutoki Village.

According to a new multi-partner report, as Zimbabwean citizens’ anger rises against President Robert Mugabe’s continued leadership, four million people face starvation.

The latest Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee study for 2016-2017 established that the number of food-insecure people would rise to over four million during the peak hunger season from January to March 2017.

According to a United Nations statement, “Food insecurity levels increased significantly in all 60 districts and in particular in the twenty most food-insecure districts.”

More than 700 000 Namibians are facing acute food insecurity amid mounting livestock deaths due to the widespread shortage of water and pasture following three successive years of drought, a new government-led vulnerability survey has revealed.

In its ‘Namibia Rural Food Security and Livelihood Vulnerability Forecast’ report for 2016/2017, the Office of the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Agriculture says of the 729 134 people facing food insecurity, 595 839 need immediate food assistance.

About 2.2 million households indicated that they had skipped a meal - with the Eastern Cape as the largest province with the number of people who had skipped a meal.

Nationally one-fifth of households reported to have run out of money to buy food in the twelve months before the survey.

The 2016 Community Survey is one of the few available data sources providing data at municipal level and this is the second largest sample survey Statistics South Africa undertook after Community survey 2007.

Bill Gates is launching his latest scheme to help sub-Saharan Africans living in extreme poverty: he’s giving them chickens.

Gates will donate 100 000 birds vaccinated against common diseases under a programme he said would boost incomes because chickens are inexpensive to care for, a good investment and help provide nutrition for children.

The Microsoft founder and billionaire philanthropist says on his Twitter feed that, “If I were living in extreme poverty, I’d want to raise chickens.”

A research report shows that voters, particularly in poor communities, believe that the handing out of food parcels during elections campaigns amounts to vote buying.
 
This month Public Protector Thuli Madonsela found that the distribution of food parcels in 2009 by Julius Malema, then leader of the African National Congress (ANC) Youth League, was an abuse of state resources.
 

The United Nations Children’s Fund says about 11million children in Eastern and Southern Africa face hunger, disease and water shortages due to the strongest El Niño weather phenomenon in decades.

Food and water shortages brought about by drought and floods are causing malnutrition, which increases vulnerability to killer diseases such as malaria, diarrhoea, cholera and dengue fever.

The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) says the World Food Day is about raising global awareness on partnerships that are needed to eradicate hunger in the world.
 
FAO representative, Dr Tobias Takavarasha, says that the world celebrates World Food Day on Friday in an effort to not only take time to actively help those who are starving, but to also help in eradicating poverty and malnutrition.
 
Dr Takavarasha says efforts need to be made to remember the poor, to distribute food and to teach everyone about nutrition.
 

Britain and the United States have reportedly launched a programme to rescue at least 650 000 Zimbabwean hunger victims, with the two countries pledging to provide up to US$43m for food aid.

This came as the World Food Programme (WFP) says in August that around 1.5 million Zimbabweans were expected to go hungry this year after a dramatic fall in maize production.