Food crisis in southern Africa as drought threatens 10m people

ACROSS southern Africa, some 10 million people - many of them battling HIV and chronic poverty - could face serious hunger by the end of the year, according to the UN.

For villagers in drought-hit southern Mozambique, this year’s food shortages are the worst in living memory, but aid workers fear the world may not respond in time.

“If the situation continues like this, we could die,” says 43-year-old mother of six Beti Samuel Gueba, pointing to her empty granary in the hamlet of Songuene. “If it is like this now, what will it be like in the coming months? I do not know.”