WEDNESDAY, 6:30PM:
FIVE million people in Southern Africa will require food aid over the next nine months as ‘El Nino’ begins to bite, causing what is expected to be the worst drought in a century.
World Food Programme executive director Cathrine Bertini said in Johannesburg on Wednesday that about US$200 million will be required to supply 600 000 tons of food aid to Southern Africa alone. She urged South Africa, as the leading country inthe region, to take a lead in providing aid.
Bertini said the highest risk countries are Angola, Lesotho, Swaziland, Malawi, Madagascar, Tanzania and Zambia, which between them have a population of 27 million, 5 million extremely vulnerable. Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe were likely to be less affected because of their greater infrastructure.
Madagascar is extremely vulnerable because the drought has been accompanied by a locust plague. Angola, still damaged by civil war, is already in crisis, and a WFP programme is encouraging the bartering of food for guns.
“South Africa is now the nerve of the region and with its political problems having been done away with, it could play a more central role in the transportation of relief supplies,” she said.
David Whaley of the UN Development Programme praised South Africa for taking early steps to plant drought-resistant plants, and said the country has a net surplus of maize which could be sold to other countries in the region. But South Africa would have to improve on its distribution and communications to ensure that the people in the most need were the people who got the aid.