The Marange community leadership has sent an urgent assistance appeal to the government to assist them with food aid following a bad rain season that has affected their crops.
Chief Bernard Marange yesterday appealed to the government to provide food aid to villagers under his jurisdiction.
“There is hunger here in Marange. It is difficult to explain the hunger we are facing here in Marange. We are appealing to the government to help us.
“We held a meeting with villagers and they told me that they don’t have anything to eat because there were no rains to talk about,” Chief Marange said.
There are fears that several parts of the country face drought-induced hunger owing to the erratic rains and prolonged dry spells. Some crops have wilted and villagers fear any late rains will do little to save the situation.
Chief Marange’s remarks come days after Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga also said the country was facing food shortages owing to the poor rains. He was addressing Zanu PF supporters at a rally in Mutare.
Between 40 to 60 per cent of Zimbabwe’s population could be food insecure by September 2022, according to the Food Assistance Outlook Brief prepared by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET).
“At least 1 in 5 households face significant food consumption gaps with high or above usual acute malnutrition or is marginally able to meet the minimum food needs only with unsustainable coping strategies such as liquidating livelihood assets,” FEWS NET explains Phase 3.
“Some households will begin consuming green harvests, and pastoral households will benefit from improved water and fodder availability with the end of the rainy season. However, high staple food prices and expanding conflict will continue to drive atypically high needs. IDPs and poor households in inaccessible municipalities of Oudalan and Soum provinces are likely to face Emergency (IPC Phase 4) outcomes, while Crisis (IPC Phase 3) outcomes are expected in the north and east,” FEWS NET says.
Food insecurity is the state of being without reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food.
