Blantyre | Saturday
MALAWI wants to spend 6.8-billion kwacha ($150-million) to combat its devastating hunger crisis, said Malawian Vice President Justin Malewezi’s office in a statement on Saturday.
The statement, issued after Malewezi held discussions with donors in the administrative capital Lilongwe this week, said half the amount would address medium-term food security issues.
Assistance to flood victims and cholera control will cost $10-million dollars, the statement added, without saying how the programmes would be funded.
The food crisis began in part last year, when the worst floods in living memory struck the poor nation. Drought this year has caused crops to fail, leaving the nation with severe food shortages.
Malnutrition has left the population more vulnerable to disease, including cholera, which has claimed 503 lives since the outbreak began in November.
More than 300 people starved to death in January and February alone, according to civic and church groups.
Malawi also needs to replenish its strategic grain reserves, after 60 000 tonnes of the staple maize was sold to Kenya last year in a corruption scandal.
Spending will also include a supplementary feeding programme for the chronically ill, the elderly and other vulnerable segments of the population.
Agriculture secretary Anddrina Mchiela was quoted by the media on Saturday as saying that the government has responded to the worst hunger in living memory by supporting supplementary feeding programmes for pregnant women and children under five.
Up to 76% of the country’s 11-million people have no food, according to official figures. Sapa-AFP