SWAZIS STARVE AS DONORS TURN BLIND EYE

SWAZILAND claimed this week the international community had turned a deaf ear to its calls for food aid for thousands of people faced with starvation in the wake of devastating floods earlier this year. An estimated 14 000 rural Swaziland villagers have already run out of food and thousands more are at risk unless the small southern African kingdom urgently receives at least 23 000 tonnes of maize to offset deficits caused by the floods, the Swaziland Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives said. The ministry said the national disaster task force recently conducted a country-wide food security assessment and established that thousands of rural Swazis had already run out of food. Western donors blame the country’s inability to feed itself on the government’s continued control of the agricultural marketing system. They say the grain prices the government sets are uneconomic and discourage maize-growing

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