US commits more food aid

The World Food Programme (WFP) on Wednesday welcomed the announcement by the United States that it would provide a third of the 1.2 million mt of food needed to feed the 13 million people facing hunger in Southern Africa.

The WFP's Brenda Barton told IRIN: "A third is certainly a substantial part of what is required ... this will really be significant in terms of tackling the current crisis."

US Agency for International Development (USAID) said the United States was contributing an extra 275,000 mt of wheat to the UN emergency relief effort for six African countries, bringing its total to 400,000 mt.

However, USAID agency head, Andrew Natsios, lashed out at the Zimbabwean government's controversial land redistribution programme, Associated Press reported.

Natsios said he did not oppose the principle of land redistribution in Zimbabwe - where some 4,000 white farmers own a third of the nation's land - just the way it was being carried out, AP said.

A regional food assessment last week put almost half of Zimbabwe's population at risk of having no food, mainly because of a drought and the country's land reform programme.

Speaking on the sidelines of the World Food Summit in Rome, Natsios said he was concerned by reports that the ruling party's supporters were preventing food aid from getting to opposition strongholds.

Last month IRIN reported allegations by a Danish NGO that Zimbabweans suspected of supporting the opposition had been turned away from feeding points. Doctors for Human Rights said that food aid in Zimbabwe had become increasingly politicised since the presidential elections in March.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's presence at the summit has angered some western diplomats, there were reports that some officials staged a boycott of the gathering.

Mugabe, who was slapped with a European Union travel ban ahead of his disputed election victory, blamed drought conditions for the current food shortages and appealed to western donors for more aid.