Five countries need urgent assistance, WFP

Lack of good rainfall before the harvest early next year could "exacerbate the situation" in Zimbabwe, the regional director of the World Food Programme (WFP), Mike Sackett, said on Thursday. Although the external food requirements to be provided by international partners and programme modalities in Zimbabwe "remain unclear", the food aid agency was ready to continue assistance to vulnerable population groups as required. Sackett requested immediate assistance of US $63 million to buy 101,869 mt of food aid to help the vulnerable survive the "hunger season" from January through to March 2005, before the harvest in Lesotho, Malawi, Swaziland, Mozambique and Zambia. The funds are part of a larger US $404 million WFP appeal to help support a monthly average of 1.5 million people in the five southern African countries, which are affected by food shortages, high HIV/AIDS rates and a weakened capacity for governance. These countries have some of the highest adult HIV prevalence rates in the world and are struggling to cope with a growing number of orphans (almost 1.8 million), extreme poverty (more than two-thirds of their populations live below the poverty line) and rapidly declining life expectancy. About one-third of the funds needed for the broader WFP operation will support food relief, while two-thirds will be used to mitigate the effects of HIV/AIDS and alleviate chronic food insecurity. Sackett added that while the focus of donor countries might have shifted to the humanitarian crisis in Sudan and the locust plague in West Africa, the food crisis in Southern Africa was still unfolding and the lack of timely food aid could prove "catastrophic".