UN: 1.5m Zimbabweans Facing Hunger

Local Editor

According to the UN World Food Program [WFP], 1.5 million people in Zimbabwe are facing hunger.

Relatively, the Social Welfare Minister said that Zimbabweans needing food aid may triple this year: "The number of Zimbabweans who will need emergency food aid this year may have doubled or trebled from last year."

The minister's statement further added that "the southern African nation is facing its worst drought in almost two decades, withering crops and killing cattle as water sources run dry..."

In a similar context, the WFP warned earlier in August last year that hunger would hit same number of people in the country as maize production halved.

"Some 16 percent of the population are expected to be ‘food insecure' at the peak of the 2015-16 lean season, the period following harvest when food stocks run especially low - a 164 percent increase on the previous year," the WFP said.

However, climatologists warned that the El Nino weather phenomenon, caused by the warming Pacific Ocean, is expected to devastate East and Southern African nations, including Zimbabwe, in 2016.

Subsistence farming, which provides rural Zimbabweans with food, is in shambles, as some areas are yet to receive rains.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team