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Zimbabwe must allow foreign aid in, says UN
Peter Apps, IOL
May 03, 2005

http://www.iol.co.za/general/newsview.php?art_id=qw1115135461203B213&click_id=2646&set_id=1

Johannesburg - Zimbabwe must allow a massive United Nations humanitarian food aid operation or many may die as 5.5 million people face serious food shortages after a regional drought, the United Nations agency Unicef said on Tuesday.

UN food agencies cut back operations in 2004 after President Robert Mugabe said the country had more than enough food, but reports of shortages have continued and aid workers say drought across southern Africa has all but destroyed the 2005 harvest.

"I would be very surprised if the government didn't take a different line this year," UN children's agency Unicef southern and east Africa regional co-ordinator Per Engebak told Reuters. "It's quite clear that what we're seeing this year affects almost the entire region."

Food was a major issue in Zimbabwe's recent parliamentary election, won by Mugabe's Zanu-PF party but widely criticised by western nations as not free and unfair, with the opposition demanding the government appeal for aid.

Some aid workers and observers have accused Mugabe's government of destroying Zimbabwe's farming sector with chaotic and violent seizures of white-owned farms for landless blacks.

Neighbouring Zambia, Mozambique and Botswana have also seen staple maize crops seriously damaged by drought, while the HIV pandemic has left many farmers dead or sick and unable to farm.

Zimbabwe's government has only allowed the UN World Food Programme to continue targeted feeding programmes reaching just under a million people, mainly Aids orphans and other at-risk groups. Agencies say they have long hoped to be allowed to enlarge their operations, but with little joy.

In a telephone interview, Engebak said people would likely starve to death if the government did not allow in UN assessment missions and then food aid.

"If the international community, backed and supported by the UN, is not in a position to effectively help to mitigate the effects we will be allowing scenes of that nature," he said. "Absolutely," he said, asked if that meant people might die.

Last week, Zimbabwe's state media reported the government-run Grain Marketing Board would buy 1.2 million tonnes of maize for the country after Mugabe admitted publicly the country faced shortages but promised no one would starve.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change says the country lacks the foreign exchange for such a purchase, and South African traders say Zimbabwe has defaulted on past purchases.

In March, Public Service and Social Welfare Minister Paul Mwanga told Reuters Zimbabwe would seek donor assistance only if food needs exceeded the budget the government had set aside.

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