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Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe villagers skip border as hunger bites

MASVINGO - Three girls emerge from the bushes near Neshuro service centre in Masvingo and wave desperately for a lift on the highway that links Zimbabwe with neighbouring South Africa.

A car pulls off the road a few metres away. Without hesitation, the girls jump on board a car that gets back on the road with a slight screech and proceeds in the direction of the border.

As Zimbabwe's southern regions begin to feel the pinch of a drought that rendered the bulk of the staple maize crop a write-off, many youths, including school dropouts, are trekking to South Africa in search for jobs to feed their families back at home. Among the worst affected is the Mwenezi district.

According to the United Nations, 1.6 million people are in need of emergency food relief in Zimbabwe. "Food aid partners led by WFP have been feeding about 1.6 million people during the period January to March 2010," Elizabeth Lwanga, the United Nations Humanitarian Co-ordinator in Zimbabwe, said. "The WFP-led Vulnerable Group Feeding (VGF) will scale down in April, which is the harvesting month when most households start consuming own production. However, the programmes can be extended based on need and this will be ascertained through the assessments." New figures are being worked on to see how many will need food assistance this year. The Federation of Red Cross Societies has indicated that up to four million people, or a third of Zimbabwe's population, will need food handouts this year.

In March, donors suspended food supplies in much of Masvingo province and most parts of the country prompting desperate villagers to trek to South Africa in search for jobs, mainly on the farms. Explaining the food aid suspension, Lwanga said: "Food aid partners usually suspend the Vulnerable Group Feeding (VGF) Programme in April because of the harvest, which enables households to feed on own production. "The expectation this year is that there may be pockets of communities which will be affected by crop failure and hence may need food assistance beyond the peak hunger season which runs from January to March. However, food aid partners are confident that they have enough stocks and resources to address these needs. "Food aid partners are currently monitoring the situation following the protracted dry spell that affected crops in part of the country to establish if there will be need to extend their programmes." Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, who chairs the government humanitarian committee, has gone around the country to assess the food security situation and to reassure people that they will not starve.

But the reassurances mean little for those who are not eligible for free food, such as the youths who are expected to work and earn their own food. In a country where unemployment is estimated to be above 90 per cent, jobs are scarce. Some of the youths claim that food aid lists are manipulated by politicians soliciting for support and the able-bodied are often told to find ways to fend for themselves. For many, the only alternative is to skip the border and search for jobs in neighbouring countries. The trek has left many villages without an entire generation of the young people who should till the land when the region gets good rains. While some of those on the food lists will be fed, for the rest, the nightmare of finding food is ever-present.

According to the Famine Early Warning System (Fewsnet), Zimbabwe has a shortfall of 800,000 tonnes of the staple maize this year. The usually well-stocked produce market in Masvingo was virtually empty of maize on a recent visit.

The few shops that had maize meal in stock were cashing in on the shortages and had doubled prices since December. The state grain company, GMB, had long run out of supplies.

Masvingo Central MP Tongai Matutu said the city was swamped by people from neighbouring rural areas who came looking for food, as they had harvested nothing because of the drought.

Matutu also warned that the GMB had not undergone what he termed "institutional reform", meaning that, even if the food came, it was likely to be distributed along partisan lines, benefiting supporters of President Robert Mugabe's Zanu (PF) party at the expense of the rest. Evidence of this was seen by The Zimbabwean. A senior Zanu (PF) official had several rooms full of maize seed from the GMB, while many people in the villages had nothing. The seed was being offered for sale, although the government expected it to be given free.