Tearfund Reveals Food Crisis in Southern Africa Deteriorating

Floods in southern Malawi have recently added on to the severe food crisis in southern Africa, washing away crops and livestock, Tearfund reports.

|PIC1|Already having affected more than 11 million people across southern Africa, the food crisis will worsen if more aid does not reach people in critical need of food, according to a Christian aid agency.

"We were warning in November that the crisis would deepen in the coming months if rapid international action was not taken," says Karyn Beattie, a Tearfund aid worker just back from the region. "In Zimbabwe the food situation is desperate. If it wasn't for emergency food distributions families would be left to survive on the wild vegetables and fruits, available at this time of the year - and many wouldn't survive."

Church-based partner agencies distributed emergency food aid to Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, providing them with seed and fertilizer. This enabled families to plant crops in hope of a harvest in April. Indications are that a good harvest is achievable with steady rainfall.

|AD|"Some fields in Malawi are again green and we are very thankful for the aid that has already been given to help us," says Francis Mkandawire of the Evangelical Association in Malawi, "But heavy rains in the south have hampered any hope of a crop yield. It is the immediate hunger gap before the next harvest that is affecting many villages leaving them with empty food stores.

"February will be the most critical month. People were eating mangoes, but they have completely gone now and we need more emergency food aid to prevent green shoots being eaten before harvest."

Although Tearfund and other agencies have been active in helping the communities most in need, a greater response is necessary to ensure that additional urgent needs can be met say aid agencies. So far, £1.54 million has been received in donations.

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