Zimbabwe’s food crisis is ”very serious,” a senior UN official said on Friday, warning that millions of people will face famine in the coming months unless quick action is taken.
Zimbabwe ”is facing a food crisis even in harvest time,” Kenzo Oshima, UN under secretary general for humanitarian affairs told a press conference after a three-day visit here.
”There will be a more grave situation in the coming months affecting millions of people in this country … unless it is addressed promptly and boldly,” he said.
The latest UN humanitarian report on Friday said that 5,5 million Zimbabweans face hunger in the next year, and warns that the country will need to import more than 1,8 million tonnes of cereal to survive until the 2003 harvest.
The government plans to import about 312 000 tonnes of food, while donors and several agencies have begun working to import grains, according to the report.
Oshima is leading a UN-team on a tour of four southern African nations threatened by famine. After Zimbabwe, they are due to visit Malawi, Zambia and Angola.
He met with Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe on Thursday, as well as with finance minister Simba Makoni, social welfare minister July Moyo and agriculture minister Joseph Made, as well as with foreign ambassadors and non-government organisations based here.
The food shortages have been blamed in part on a drought, and in part on Mugabe’s tumultuous land reforms, in which more than 90% of white-owned commercial farms have been targeted for resettlement by blacks.
Under a new law, about 2 900 white-owned farms were supposed to top working Monday, but many farmers ignored the deadline, according to the Commercial Farmers Union which represents them. – Sapa-AFP