Hunger forces community to eat livestock feed

Poverty and hunger were forcing members of the San community in northeastern Namibia to eat livestock feed, according to a relief official. A government investigation into a news report in a local daily, The Namibian, confirmed that members of the community, who live in western Caprivi, had consumed contaminated rice collected from the floor of a food warehouse, said Gabriel Kangowa, deputy director of the Emergency Management Unit (EMU). Kangowa, who conducted the investigation, said the 1,600-member community had received food assistance earlier in the year and were told that the spoilt rice was meant for their chickens and pigs. "But people were hungry and the unemployment rate is very high in the area - they had no choice but to also eat this rice," he told IRIN. The Namibian quoted the State Veterinary Laboratory as saying that tests had revealed that the rice distributed in the area was unfit for both human and animal consumption. Drought in parts of the Caprivi Strip has severely affected subsistence farmers and the EMU has stepped in with additional food aid to help the community through the lean season until the harvest in May/June. "Each of the 500 households in the region will receive 37.5 to 40 kg of maize meal every month." Hunger had forced children to stay away from school, said Kangowa. "We found children who stayed without food for two to three days". The EMU is to initiate a school-feeding programme to address the situation, and government will also launch food-for-work programmes. Drought-prone northern Namibia is battling with food shortages as a result of 2005's poor harvest.