EC helps plug food gap

A European Commission (EC) donation of US $25 million to the World Food Programme (WFP) in Zimbabwe has "come at just the right time", the UN food agency said on Tuesday. "The EC donation has plugged a serious shortfall we would have had [in the food pipeline] for February and March," the WFP spokeswoman in Zimbabwe, Makena Walker, told IRIN. "The EC has an obligation, despite the excommunication of Zimbabwe from the European Union [EU], to ensure food security and humanitarian aid to the people of Zimbabwe who are at the verge of starvation," the head of the EU delegation to Zimbabwe, Fransisca Mosca, said on Tuesday. "The EC recognises that the food security situation in the country remains critical and, that without the direct intervention of the international community, a significant proportion of the Zimbabwean population are at a risk," Mosca said. Walker said WFP was at the moment buying an estimated 55,000 mt of maize in South Africa with the EC donation. "It's hand-to-mouth - as soon as we get funds, we're pumping [food] out because the needs are very high. In March we expect to be feeding 4.5 million people." A funding shortfall in December forced WFP to cut maize rations to needy Zimbabweans by 50 percent. Although maize has been restored for this month, the rations are without pulses and vegetable oil. WFP has appealed for US $197 million to cover its emergency programme in Zimbabwe. With the EC donation the appeal is now 80 percent funded, said Walker.