THE European Union has released an additional US$18.7 million towards the emergency food aid for vulnerable people in Zimbabwe.<\/p>\n
In a statement on Thursday, EU Commissioner for Crisis Management Ms Janez Lenar\u010di\u010d said the funding comes at a time when large parts of the country and parts of Southern Africa were hard hit by drought, which is reported to be the worst in decades.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn addition to providing food and nutrition, the funds will improve access to basic health care and clean water and provide protection to counter the risks that people\u2019s fragility exposes them to.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe funding for Zimbabwe is part of a larger support package of over US$24.5 million, the remaining amount will be channeled to providing food assistance and nutrition support in Eswatini, Madagascar, Lesotho and Zambia.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany poor households in drought-affected areas in southern African countries are struggling to have enough food due to crop failure, reduced access to water and, in some places, unaffordable food prices in markets. EU humanitarian aid will help deliver food to those most in need and tackle the hunger crisis in fragile rural communities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Lenar\u010di\u010d said the Southern Africa and Indian Ocean region as a whole was prone to natural disasters and oscillates between droughts and floods that are destroying harvests and further weakening fragile communities.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince January 2019, the EU has allocated a total of US$75.75 million for humanitarian assistance across the region. The bulk of this funding went for emergency relief assistance in the wake of natural disasters (cyclones Idai and Kenneth), food assistance, and helping at-risk communities equip themselves better to face climate-related disasters,\u201d said Ms Lenar\u010di\u010d.<\/p>\n
She added that background extensive areas in Southern Africa received in 2019 their lowest seasonal rainfall to date since 1981 when records first began to be held.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs many as 12 million people in the region are at risk of hunger because of extended periods of below-average rainfall, interspersed with floods, on top of the economic challenges that some countries in the region are grappling with,\u201d said Ms Lenar\u010di\u010d.<\/p>\n
In Zimbabwe, 7.7 million people are reported to be at risk of facing food shortages due to drought.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THE European Union has released an additional US$18.7 million towards the emergency food aid for vulnerable people in Zimbabwe. In a statement on Thursday, EU Commissioner for Crisis Management Ms Janez Lenar\u010di\u010d said the funding comes at a time when large parts of the country and parts of Southern Africa were hard hit by drought, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":4518,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[1258,343],"class_list":{"0":"post-18144","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-community","9":"tag-emergency-food-aid","10":"tag-eu"},"yoast_head":"\n