The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said on Wednesday that hundreds of thousands more people had slipped into the severely-hungry category in Zimbabwe, where over half of the population faces hunger.<\/p>\n
It said a recent study revealed that the \u201cnumber of acutely food insecure Zimbabweans had risen to 4.3 million, from 3.8 million at the end of last year\u201d.<\/p>\n
In all 7.7 million people, more than half the population were food insecure and needed multi-sectoral humanitarian support according to the UN.<\/p>\n
In previous hunger years, mainly the rural population would require food aid, but lately millions of urban dwellers are needing food aid.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith most Zimbabweans already struggling to put food on the table, the Covid-19 pandemic risks even wider and deeper desperation,\u201d said Eddie Rowe, WFP\u2019s Zimbabwe country director.<\/p>\n
Catastrophe<\/p>\n
\u201cWe must all do our utmost to prevent this tragedy turning into a catastrophe,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n
The WFP on Wednesday launched an \u201curgent\u201d appeal for US$130 million, to feed people, as part of its $472 million food aid that runs until December.<\/p>\n
Hyperinflation which stood at more than 540% in February, has pushed the prices of staples beyond the means of most people.<\/p>\n
The country\u2019s economy has been in a slump for more than a decade, experiencing multiple climate and economic related shocks including chronic shortages of cash, fuel, medicines and food<\/p>\n
WFP warned that coronavirus which has so far infected 11 and killed one of those \u201cthreatens to exacerbate Zimbabwe\u2019s dire economic and hunger crises, drastically affecting the lives of people in both urban and rural areas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said on Wednesday that hundreds of thousands more people had slipped into the severely-hungry category in Zimbabwe, where over half of the population faces hunger. It said a recent study revealed that the \u201cnumber of acutely food insecure Zimbabweans had risen to 4.3 million, from 3.8 million at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":21779,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[1314,1227],"class_list":{"0":"post-21778","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-economy","9":"tag-coronavirus","10":"tag-world-food-programme"},"yoast_head":"\n