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Zimbabwe signs UN food aid agreement
(AP)
Updated: 2005-12-02 09:14
Zimbabwe signed an agreement Thursday with the United Nations food agency to
feed at least 3 million people after previously denying major shortages in the
troubled southern African country.
Relations with the World Food Program had been strained since President
Robert Mugabe's government told it and other international organizations to stop
large-scale feeding programs last year, saying Zimbabwe can feed itself.
The memorandum of understanding was signed after several weeks of
discussions, WFP said. It sets out a framework under which food distributions
will take place through June, while clarifying government and U.N.
responsibilities.
Differences have emerged in the past, with some humanitarian groups accusing
the government of withholding food aid from communities that support its
political rivals.
"WFP welcomes the signing of this agreement, which will certainly assist in
our plans to deliver food aid to hungry people across Zimbabwe," the agency's
country director Kevin Fared said in the statement.
A woman sits on her wheelbarrow while waiting
for food aid southeast of the Zimbabwe capital of Harare, August 12,
2005.[Reuters/file] | Magus blames poor harvests on four years of drought, which prompted the food
program to start feeding millions across southern Africa in 2002. But
independent economists say chaotic land reform, coupled with government
restrictions on the importation and movement of grain, have severely exacerbated
the problem in Zimbabwe.
Thousands of white-owned commercial farms have been redistributed to black
Zimbabweans in the often violent program that began in 2000, virtually
destroying the country's agriculture-based economy.
WFP and its partners distributed food to 2 million Zimbabweans in November
and are gearing up to feed more than 1 million more through their programs for
the most vulnerable.
Food surveys in June showed at least 3 million people would need aid during
the lean months before the next harvests in April. But the government
acknowledges the number will likely rise because of "very large" price increases
in food since June, WFP said.
The agency is particularly concerned about shortages of the staple maize,
warning prices have risen between 500 percent and 700 percent across the country
in the past year.
"Many people are experiencing their fourth consecutive year of food shortages
and are now surviving on one meal or less a day," the U.N. agency
said.
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