The Red Cross said it will on Wednesday start distributing emergency food supplies across Zimbabwe to reach about 24 000 vulnerable people in the poverty-stricken country.
Trucks will leave warehouses in the cities of Harare, Bulawayo and Mutare later on Wednesday with 383 metric tons of food aid to provide almost 24 000 people with enough maize, beans and cooking oil for a month, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said in a statement.
The IFRC operates a food security operation worth 27,7-million Swiss francs ($26,8-million) in Zimbabwe destined to help a total of 260 100 people each month.
“This is a critical period for these communities,” said Peter Lundberg, head of the IFRC’s delegation in the Zimbabwean capital, Harare.
“They have already faced months without enough food and, for many families, the situation has deteriorated drastically in recent weeks,” he added.
Zimbabwe’s economy has been on a downturn for a decade with high unemployment and food shortages in a country where at least 80% of the population live below the poverty line and inflation is estimated at more than 11-million percent.
Two weeks ago, the reserve bank allowed selected shops and wholesalers to quote prices in foreign currency, in a bid to curb the burgeoning black market trade in basic commodities.
Once hailed as a model economy, Zimbabwe’s fortunes have nosedived since 2000 when veteran ruler Robert Mugabe seized white-owned farms and handed them over to landless black Zimbabweans, often with no farming skills.
On Monday Zimbabwean political parties signed a power-sharing accord aimed at ending the country’s economic and political crisis.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe’s central bank on Wednesday issued a new Z$1 000 note in a bid to ease widespread cash shortages as the country battles the world’s highest inflation rate.
According to the bank, “introducing the new Z$1 000 Zimbabwe dollar note was for your [Zimbabweans] convenience”.
The bank has introduced a series of new notes since August, after the central bank struck 10 zeros off the local currency.
Banks have imposed daily withdrawal limits of Z$500 dollars for individuals and corporates, which is only enough for a bus ticket from the suburbs to central Harare.
Because of the restrictions, long meandering queues have become a familiar sight outside banks, with some depositors sleeping outside to be at the front of the queue. — AFP