Urgent action is needed halt the humanitarian crisis caused by drought and Aids in the Southern African mountain kingdom of Lesotho, a United Nations official said on Friday.
James T Morris, the UN secretary general’s special envoy for humanitarian needs in Southern Africa, said: ”Any hopes that Lesotho’s humanitarian crisis would improve this year have been dashed by another drought and the increasingly destructive consequences of HIV/Aids.”
Morris arrived on Friday in the capital, Maseru, accompanied by Carol Bellamy, executive director of the UN children’s fund Unicef, and Peter Piot, the executive director of UNAids.
In February, the government of Lesotho had declared a food emergency when it became clear that the harvest would cover only 10% of food requirements.
”The drought has destroyed Lesotho’s harvest in the past three years, but HIV/Aids and other crises in health and education sectors are at the root of the foodstuffs crisis,” Piot stressed.
The future of the country, surrounded by South Africa, where two-thirds of the population live below the poverty line, depends on help from the international community.
Piot said: ”Without our help, Lesotho has no chance of coping with HIV/Aids and would fall into an infinite crisis and likely catastrophe.”
According to UN estimates, at least 70 people die daily of Aids in a country the size of Belgium, and which has an infection rate of 31% among the adult population, making it the fourth-highest worldwide.
A total of 73 000 children have been orphaned by Aids. By next year’s harvest in June, about 57 000 tons of food will be needed to feed the starving population. — Sapa-DPA