Drought, disease, poverty destroying southern Africa
Pastor Dale Morgan
Drought, disease, poverty destroying southern Africa*
By Evelyn Leopold
Reuters
Tuesday, July 24, 2007; 10:55 PM
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Drought, AIDS and chronic poverty in the
landlocked southern African states of Lesotho, Swaziland and Zimbabwe
are putting hundreds of thousands at risk of hunger, a U.N. official
said on Tuesday.
"You have got very severe drought in three countries, some of the worst
harvests on record in Swaziland and an incredibly high levels of
HIV/AIDS in Lesotho," John Holmes, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator,
told reporters.
"This is occurring on the basis of very vulnerable populations to start
with," he said.
Carol Bellamy, the former director of UNICEF, the U.N. children's fund,
in 2002 used the phrase "perfect storm" in relation to several southern
Africa countries -- drought, environmental degradation, near starvation
and AIDS sapping the strength of the working population.
Asked if the situation was approaching a "perfect storm" now, Holmes
said, "You could say that," because there there was a triple threat in
all three countries, who have suffered from poverty for years.
In Swaziland, with only 1 million people, a third of all people between
15 and 49 are afflicted with HIV/AIDS. The harvest is the worst ever,
prompting the government in June to declare a national disaster.
Holmes said that more than 400,000 people in Swaziland will require
humanitarian assistance, and requested $15.6 million in emergency
assistance.
Lesotho earlier this month declared a food emergency and an appeal will
be issued shortly, Holmes said.
The tiny country has experienced the most severe drought in the last 30
years, which slashed the corn harvest by more than 40 percent. More than
400,000 people, or a fifth of the population, need emergency food aid.
In Zimbabwe, where diplomats blame some of the disaster on the policies
of its leader, Robert Mugabe, about half of the financial appeals have
been fulfilled.
An earlier appeal for $253 million has drawn a response of $123 million
with nearly $100 million donated by the United States, Holmes said.