Southern Africa was facing catastrophe unless food aid was provided immediately for an estimated seven million people currently experiencing famine, the World Health Organisation said on Monday.
The number of starving people was expected to peak at 13-million by the end of the year, the WHO said.
Addressing a press conference in Johannesburg, the WHO’s World Food Programme (WFP) executive director James Morris said the organisation was in need of at least R400-million for relief programmes including medicines and crops.
”We are staring catastrophe in the face — unless we get aid fast to millions of people whose lives are in the balance because they are starving.”
Morris said the crisis was of ”incredible proportions” and increasing faster than had been imagined.
The WFP team has just completed an assessment tour of Malawi, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Lesotho, Zambia and Swaziland since the beginning of this month.
”It’s going to take an incredibly generous response from our donors — the United States, United Kingdom, European Union, the Nordic countries as well as NGOs, nations and governments.”
According to the WFP, the lack of basic health services, the ongoing drought and the rampaging Aids pandemic were triggering the increasing loss of lives and had resulted in drastic reduction of school attendance.
”Weakened by hunger, many people will die of disease. They could have survived these if properly nourished — if they had produced adequate food or been able to purchase the food they need.”
Regarding media reports of countries like Zimbabwe rejecting the provision of genetically modified foods, WFP regional director Judith Lewis said interaction with such countries was continuing, to make them understand their safety.
”We respect the governments’ concerns and appreciate their responsible questioning on the safety of these foods.
”But we are comfortable with foods safely made for human consumption and believe these countries need to research more on these foods’ safety,” she said. – Sapa