Food crisis forcing people from homes

Zimbabwe's food security crisis, brought on by drought and a controversial plan to redistribute commercial farms to landless citizens, has forced people to leave their homes in search of food, UN sources said.

The creation of internally displaced persons (IDPs) due to the food crisis is cause for concern as there are no accurate figures on the number of IDPs in need of aid, said the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in Harare.

The UN's World Food Programme and Food and Agricultural Organisation estimate that about six million Zimbabweans require food aid.

In order to enable aid agencies to better prepare themselves to mitigate the complex humanitarian situation in Zimbabwe, the UN is set to begin an independent assessment of the number and situation of food security-related IDPs in the country.

The UNDP said: "Issues around the food security crisis in the country have raised the concern of population movements and IDPs. The matter, however, has become highly politicised on all sides and it is very difficult to get precise figures on [IDPs]."

The issue was raised with the government by UN Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Kenzo Oshima, during his recent mission to Zimbabwe. It was now being pursued by UNDP Resident Coordinator Victor Angelo.

"An assessment will be carried out, and a database established, of IDPs in the near future through the Resident Coordinator's Relief and Recovery Unit," the UNDP said.

While there was concern that the food crisis in Zimbabwe could cause refugees to flee to Zimbabwe's neighbours - South Africa, Botswana and Mozambique - there had as yet been no reports of this, said the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Pretoria.

UNHCR Assistant Representative Abel Mbilinyi told IRIN that "if there were any large movements we would certainly know". He said Zimbabweans continued to cross regularly into South Africa but that this was not out of the ordinary.

"For the time being we have not been alerted [about refugees fleeing Zimbabwe] either by Home Affairs [in South Africa], or our other offices [in the region], but we are watching what is happening," Mbilinyi said.