12 million people in need of food assistance: UN
Dec 13, 2005 (ROME) — Food insecurity in southern Africa is of serious concern despite a bumper maize crop in South Africa, according to the new report published by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on Tuesday.
Nearly 12 million people, mainly in Zimbabwe and Malawi, are inneed of emergency food assistance, says the report.
It is hard to buy food in many areas due to the scarcity of grain on sale and high inflation, coupled with fuel and transport problems which exacerbate food insecurity. An estimated 3 million people will receive monthly rations of cereals and pulses from theWorld Food Programme.
Eastern Africa has gathered better crop in 2005, the overall food situation, however, remains precarious in several countries resulted from local conflicts and droughts.
In Somalia, more than 900,000 people are in need of urgent assistance. The situation is further aggravated by upsurges in hostilities in parts of southern Somalia and deteriorating security conditions that are hampering the distribution of relief assistance.
The food situations in Sudan is also alarming because of continued conflicts and population displacement that have been resulted in serious food insecurity, especially in Darfur and Southern Sudan.
About 5.2 million people in Eritrea and Ethiopia are in need offood assistance, FAO said.
(Xinhua)