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Zimbabwe: The humanitarian crisis report
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, Solidarity Peace Trust and Amandla
August 15, 2008

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Summary

By the end of 2008, 45% of Zimbabwe's population will be at risk of starvation. Currently, at least two million people need urgent food assistance. The United Nations has reported that maize production in Zimbabwe for 2008 was estimated at 575 000 tons - an estimated deficit of around 1 million tons.

Shops are now empty of Zimbabwe's staple, maize meal.

In a letter dated June 4, 2008, the Zimbabwean government instructed all international aid agencies and local NGOs to suspend their fieldwork. As a result, humanitarian aid to Zimbabwe's poorest and most vulnerable people has come to a halt.

Now, more than 2 months after the official suspension directive, the government has still not lifted the ban, prompting serious concerns of a humanitarian catastrophe given that the country's food production for the just ended harvest is the worst the country has seen in at least 15 years.

Desperately hungry citizens are now running out of survival options.

• Those with nothing to sell are resorting to eating whatever wild fruits they can get hold of.
• Rural people are selling off their livestock for cash to buy food.
• In rural areas in the southern provinces there are increasing reports of desperate families marrying off their underage girls to elderly well-off men in return for food and general support.
• Said an elderly lady from the Harare high-density township of Mbare: "If we do not get assistance soon, we may just have to all resort to begging in the streets".

This report is based on interviews undertaken in Musina and Johannesburg in South Africa and Harare in Zimbabwe during the period of July 27 to August 13, 2008.

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