The head of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) met with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe in Harare on Wednesday for what was described as ”a good conversation” on Zimbabwe’s growing food crisis.
UN envoy James Morris said the WFP was ready to provide Zimbabwe and other Southern African countries with humanitarian assistance following drought, state television reported.
”We’ve talked about ways that the United Nations could be helpful to countries in the region, specifically to Zimbabwe as it looks to its own responsibility to address issues of hunger, nutrition and healthcare,” Morris told reporters after his meeting
with Mugabe.
”We’ve had a good conversation,” he said.
”I should also say we [Zimbabwe and the WFP] have had a very good working relationship now for several years, and I think everyone is affirmed that that working relationship will continue going forward.”
The scale of Zimbabwe’s crisis still remains unclear. Mugabe’s government says 2,8-million of the country’s 11,6-million people need food aid, but aid agencies say the number of people requiring help is closer to five million.
Mugabe said his government was willing to accept food aid as long as it came without political strings attached.
Harare is sensitive to any criticism of its controversial five-year old programme of seizing white-owned land to give to black farmers.
Aid agencies say the programme has slashed agricultural production in Zimbabwe, once considered the breadbasket of Southern Africa. – Sapa-DPA