About one million people in Mozambique are facing hunger because of an ongoing drought in the south-eastern African nation, Mozambican President Armando Guebuza said in an interview on Wednesday.
”We have some one million Mozambicans who, at this moment, are undergoing the effects of a drought and who suffer because they don’t know what they are going to eat tomorrow,” he told Portuguese daily newspaper Diario de Noticias.
Mozambique, along with most parts of Southern Africa, is experiencing its fourth consecutive year of drought.
Guebuza, who began a three-day official visit to former ruler Portugal on Monday, said the government is seeking aid to help those facing hunger and is encouraging farmers to alter their methods to be better able to face recurring droughts.
More than half of the former Portuguese colony’s population of 17-million lives on less than $1 a day.
A steady economic growth rate has helped reduce poverty from 69% in 1997 to 54,5% in 2003.
Guebuza said his government intends to boost access to education and encourage foreign investment, especially in agriculture, tourism and the service sector, in order to reduce poverty further.
”We have to reduce this percentage as quickly as possible,” he said. — Sapa-AFP