(Bloomberg) – The worst drought in almost four decades, cyclone-induced floods and an economic collapse have left Zimbabwe on the verge of its worst-ever famine. The southern African nation will probably run out of corn — its staple food — by January and about three out of five Zimbabweans won’t have enough to eat, according to the United Nations World Food Programme. While Zimbabwe has experienced intermittent food shortages for the last two decades, the problem has mostly been limited to rural areas. This time, 3
million of the 8.5 million people at risk of food insecurity are in cities, said Eddie Rowe, the WFP’s country director in Zimbabwe. “You will have a lot more people hungry in Zimbabwe than ever before,” he said. In the past, “in urban areas the alarm bells were not ringing.” The government has already declared a state of disaster because of the drought, which has decimated harvests. One of the strongest-ever cyclones in the southern hemisphere also destroyed crops in March and a deepening economic crisis has limited the government’s ability to address the looming shortfalls. READ MORE
