Govt admits food aid required

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Wednesday told visiting UN Special Envoy to Southern Africa, James Morris, that the country requires food aid to cope with a drought-linked food crisis.

Speaking to journalists in the capital Harare, after he had met Mugabe at the headquarters of his ruling ZANU-PF party, Morris said: "The president said that he welcomed food assistance and food assistance that comes with a humanitarian commitment."

An estimated three to four million Zimbabweans - a third of the population of 11.6 million - are expected to need food aid over the next year, particularly in the lean season starting in December, as a result of drought, poverty, the impact of HIV/AIDS and the disintegration of social service delivery.

Morris said he did not expect obstacles in working with the Zimbabwean government. "We have worked well together and we will work through the numbers [of people in need] as we go forward," Morris said.

Mugabe last year called a halt to general feeding programmes run by humanitarian agencies and their NGO partners, saying the country was expecting a bumper harvest.

He had forecast a 2.4 million mt maize crop but only about half a million mt of the staple food was delivered to the state-run grain depots.

The government has in the past accused donors of using food aid to campaign for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change while the opposition has accused the government of using food as a political weapon, withholding it from perceived opponents.