UN to deliver food aid to 4.1 mln hungry in Zimbabwe

The U.N. food agency said on Tuesday it was procuring 240,000 tonnes of food assistance to deliver to 4.1 million people in Zimbabwe where food shortages are being exacerbated by runaway inflation and drought-induced by climate change. "We are very much concerned as the situation continues to deteriorate," Eddie Rowe, WFP country director, speaking from Harare, told a Geneva news briefing. "We believe if we do not reach out and assist these people then the situation would blow up into a major crisis."

The country, once the breadbasket of Africa, is experiencing its worst economic crisis in a decade, marked by soaring inflation and shortages of food, fuel, medicines, and electricity. The aid will be for January to June, Rowe said.