60% of Zimbabweans are without enough food

November 28, 2019 Village Reporter

The United Nations has said that millions of Zimbabweans are struggling to access food.

Hilal Elver, the UN’s special rapporteur on the right to food who disclosed this said “The people of Zimbabwe are slowly getting to a point of suffering a man-made starvation.”

Elver made the statement in Harare after after a 10-day visit to the country.

In a statement she said that 60% of the country’s 14 million people were not getting enough food to meet their basic needs.

“Many of the people I spoke to in Harare told me that they could only afford one meal a day,” she added.

The UN officials also noted that Zimbabwe is experiencing chronic malnutrition which is endemic in both rural and urban areas.

She also claimed doctors have revealed to her that “the death of children from malnutrition had been on the rise in the last few months”.

“The harrowing stories I heard from resilient grandmothers, mothers or aunts desperately trying to save their children from starvation, in the midst of their daily hardships, will remain with me.”

Elver added that “The Zimbabweans I spoke to in Harare and its suburbs explained that even if food was widely available in markets, the erosion of their incomes combined with an inflation skyrocketing to over 490%, made them suffer from food insecurity, also impacting the middle-class.”

Zimbabwe has been hit by a food crisis in recent months with the UN saying more than five million people are in dire need of food aid.

The United Nations said that most of those without food are close to starvation. The World Food Programme (WFP) in August launched a $331m appeal to help the country.

Zimbabwe is currently battling the effects of drought, a cyclone and an economic crisis.