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Food Aid Report: September 2006
Zimbabwe Peace Project
October 25, 2006

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Executive Summary
Zimbabwe’s food security situation is now precarious. It is estimated that about 1 400 000 people will be in need of food aid before the next harvest. This is as a result of a combination of factors including the fact that only 40% of the land acquired under fast track land reform is productive and poor harvests in the 2005/6 agricultural season. Some communities have become dependent on food hand outs from the Grain Marketing Board, Non-Governmental Organisations and the Church. The occurrence of political favouritism around food aid distribution has continued in Manicaland province. The primary perpetrators of violence remain Zanu PF supporters and sympathizers while the victims have been predominantly MDC supporters and those of no specified political affiliation.

In some constituencies, such as, Makoni North, it is alleged that some NGOs have been instructed by political party activists on who to supply medical assistance and who not to supply. There are also reported cases of some ruling party political activists threatening NGO staffers with banning them from distributing food in their constituencies if they do not comply with their requests to play a role in the identification of beneficiaries.

The violations have been varied with some persons being asked to surrender MDC cards and T/shirts before they are eligible to benefit from food aid. Due to hunger some of the victims have complied. It needs to be noted that denial of food aid rarely occurs in isolation but is in most cases one of the many forms of human rights violations being experienced by persons of no known political affiliation or of the opposition.

In some cases the victims of denial of food or other forms of aid are also victims of harassment, intimidation and sometimes assault. The reasons given for denial have been included as non attendance to ruling party meetings, participation of one in opposition party politics or attendance of NGO meetings. In extreme cases the elderly who are likely not to attend meetings of the ruling party due to infirmity are denied food aid distributed through the GMB. There is an inherent assumption that aid being distributed through government sponsored channels is only for the members of the ruling party.

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