Red Cross appeals for assistance to feed Zimbabweans

The Red Cross says the current maize crop in Zimbabwe is the worst on record and would result in millions suffering due to massive food shortages before the end of the year.

The agency is urgently appealing for funds to feed a quarter of a million of people. The food shortages have been blamed by the opposition on the ruling Zanu PF government's land grab programme. Succesive droughts and lack of inputs have also worsenned the food situation in the country as productive land lies unused.

Zanu PF blames the West engineering most of the problems facing the country, including the food shortages.

But it says the situation is becoming increasingly desperate and more than five million people, almost half of Zimbabwe's population, will need food aid by the end of the year.

President Robert Mugabe's troubled government has today lifted a ban on aid agencies suspended ahead of the controversial June 27 presidential run-off election, a move that highlights the gravity of the humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe.
 
In June the government indefinitely suspended all field work by aid groups and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) after accusing them of “breaching the terms and conditions of their registration”, by politicizing food distribution while allegedly campaigning for the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which won March 29 general elections, a charge they deny.

But on Friday the government reversed the crippling ban, which had already resulted in high incidences of starvation in the country as most people could not afford to buy and source basic food stuffs on their own.

In letters sent out to NGOs on Friday, Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Permanent secretary Lancaster Museka said the reversal of the ban covers those organizations involved in humanitarian assistance, food aid, relief, recovery and development, family and child care and protection, care and protection of older persons, rights and empowerment of people with disabilities and HIV and AIDS care and related support services.

Museka also summoned NGOs to attend a meeting on Monday afternoon at his offices where his Ministry will “clarify operational modalities following the lifting of the suspension of NGO/PVO.”

Zimbabwe is currently grappling with an acute food crisis, which has been exacerbated by the ever increasing costs of commodities in supermarkets and on the parallel black market. According to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) more than two million people are food insecure at the moment and require food aid, which had been suspended. The number of food insecure households will rise to more than five million about half the Zimbabwean population early next year.

Already, aid organizations have raised concern over the deteriorating humanitarian crisis in the country. The Red Cross has so far appealed for almost 28 million Swiss francs to provide urgent assistance to hundreds of thousands of people affected by chronic food shortages in the country.