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43 people died of malnutrition-related illnesses in Zimbabwe city
ZimOnline
June 07, 2006

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/EKOI-6QJ4YB?OpenDocument&rc=1&cc=zwe

BULAWAYO - At least 43 people died of malnutrition-related illnesses in Zimbabwe's second biggest city of Bulawayo last February, according to a confidential council policy paper released last week.

The latest figures bring the number of people who have succumbed to malnutrition-related diseases in Bulawayo since the beginning of the year to 77, highlighting the deepening economic crisis in the southern African country.

Bulawayo executive mayor Japhet Ndabeni-Ncube yesterday confirmed the rising malnutrition-related deaths, describing them as worrying.

Of the 43 people who died in February, 31 were children under the age of four while two elderly people above the age of 70 had also died because of hunger.

Ndabeni-Ncube, from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party, is the only mayor in Zimbabwe who compiles figures of residents dying of malnutrition-related illnesses, an undertaking that has earned him threats and insults from the government which does not want such statistics highlighted.

The Harare authorities have in the past disputed figures compiled by Ndabeni-Ncube, accusing the opposition mayor of lying and manipulating death records to cause alarm and despondency.

But the mayor told ZimOnline yesterday that the statistics were necessary to help his council properly plan for a feeding programme it is carrying out in schools in the city.

"The figures that we get from our health department are worrying and we are now working on trying to improve on our supplementary feeding programmes in schools and in council-run clinics," Ndabeni-Ncube said.

Bulawayo provincial governor Cain Mathema was not available for comment on the matter last night.

Zimbabwe has battled severe food shortages over the past six years after Mugabe violently seized white-owned farms for redistribution to landless blacks.

The farm disturbances slashed food production by 60 percent resulting in most Zimbabweans depending on food handouts from international donors.

Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain 26 years ago, has often boasted that no one would die of hunger in Zimbabwe.

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