Governments urged to give aid towards food crisis in southern Africa

INTERNATIONAL governments need to give emergency aid to southern Africa, which is facing the biggest famine in the world, it was claimed yesterday.

Global food agency, the UN World Food Program (WFP) said there could be up to three million people starving in Malawi by January.

WFP executive director James Morris said in Dublin that bad weather and the HIV/AIDs crisis had badly hit crop harvests in Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Swaziland.

“The issues in southern Africa represent the most serious humanitarian crisisin the world today,” he told a news briefing.

“We will need more help to do our job in southern Africa. We will need additional help from the international community. We currently have between half and two-thirds of what we need to do our work.”

The former US businessman said the WFP had planned to feed 1.6 million people in Malawi but would now have to provide aid to three million people who will be “food insecure” by January.

The international community was heavily criticised by the UN earlier this year for its slow response to a food crisis in Niger in western Africa.

The WFP estimates that HIV/AIDS killed 85,000 people in Malawi alone last year and orphaned 500,000 children.

Mr Morris is in Ireland for a round of meetings with Government officials as well as Irish NGOs, Concern, Goal and Trócaire.

He praised Ireland’s generosity on humanitarian aid. The country is the seventh per capita contributor with each citizen donating €3.38 per year compared to the world average of €2.14.

Mr Morris explained that 25,000 people die in southern Africa every day from hunger, including 18,000 children.