Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe is attending the World Food Summit in Rome despite an EU travel ban, as his nation grapples with a famine affecting about half of the population.
The state-run Herald newspaper said on Saturday that Mugabe left on Friday for the summit, where leaders and officials from 180 nations will work to craft a plan to half the number of the world’s hungry by 2015.
The European Union, the United States and several other western nations have imposed sanctions on Mugabe, including a travel ban, over rights abuses and alleged fraud during his campaign for re-election in March.
But countries that host UN institutions are required to allow all leaders to attend UN meetings, although the host country can restrict their travel to a limited area around the airport and the actual UN building.
The four-day Rome summit will tackle major problems at the heart of Africa’s struggle with poverty, including Aids, soil salination and mass urbanisation in the developing world.
Zimbabwe’s maize harvest this year is expected to be only
510 000 tons, only 28% of average crop Zimbabwe produced in the last decade, according to a study last month by UN agencies.
The southern African country needs about two million tons of maize to feed its population, and the dramatic shortfall is already being felt in both cities and remote rural areas.
The shortage came when a drought coincided with the government’s violence-wracked land reforms, and after the government delayed for months last year when accepting reports that warned of a looming famine.
The UN World Food Programme estimates that six million people need emergency food aid. The government put the figure at 7,8 million people — more than half the population.
At least one in four adult Zimbabweans is suffering from HIV, and UN officials fear a devastating death toll as people whose bodies are already under attack by the virus begin to suffer malnutrition. – Sapa-AFP