Andrew Meldrum reports:
The number of Zimbabweans needing food aid has increased to 7.5m, nearly two-thirds of its population, according to a joint assessment by UN experts and Zimbabwean officials published yesterday. It said there had been a remarkable increase in the number of people going hungry since September, when 5m were then considered in need of help.
International donors say they are scrambling to provide adequate supplies and accuse President Robert Mugabe’s government of refusing to admit that the policy of widespread land seizures has reduced food production.
Mr Mugabe’s government is withholding food from opposition supporters, according to human rights groups – an observation confirmed by interviews with hungry rural people. There are 5m in rural Zimbabwe who are dependent upon international food aid.
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According to Zimbabweans and human rights groups the government routinely withholds supplies to rural people in southern Matabeleland and many other areas which voted for the opposition in Mr Mugabe’s disputed presidential election in 2002.
A fraction, just the merest fraction, of that volume of attention…