Mugabe's man made famine to get worse

Times:

Zimbabwe is on the brink of an unprecedented famine after its worst harvest since independence in 1980. The plight of Zimbabweans is compounded by the deliberate starvation of most of the population because of their support for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

A crop assessment by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) says that the country that once fed scores of famine-stricken African nations will harvest only 575,000 tonnes of maize, the national staple, from last summer's crop - only 28 per cent of the grain needed to feed the country's estimated 11.8 million people.

Already 29 per cent of the population are “chronically malnourished,” according to the Health Ministry and the UN. A similar percentage of children suffer stunting.

In Bulawayo, cases of malnutrition in hospitals have increased 110 per cent in two months.

Rural stocks of food will start running out in August, according to the FAO, when more than two million will have to be fed or face starvation. By January the number will have risen to 5.1 million. The Government gives assurances that it has imported 500,000 tonnes of maize, but there is no evidence of it. The FAO has forecast a shortfall of one million tonnes of grain.

In spite of the dire situation, President Mugabe's regime is maintaining a total ban on famine relief by local and international aid agencies. What little food the Government has for distribution is handed to supporters of the ruling Zanu (PF) party.

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The man is without conscience. He does not care and in some cases wishes these people dead. He is doing what the communist have often done. He is engaged in genocide on the cheap much like that used by Stalin and Mao to kill millions. His enablers in South Africa also bear responsibility for this travesty.