FOOD STORTAGE HIT THE SADC REGION

An Estimated 41 million people of the 181 million people in the southern African development community are food insecure, and out of this figure, more than 21 million people are in urgent need of assistance.

This is according to the Vulnerability Assessment Results released on 10 June 2016 at the 10^th SADC meeting of regional vulnerability assessment and analysis held in Pretoria, South Africa.

The SADC region has been hit by a devastating El Niño-induced drought, the worst in 35 years, following the failure of two consecutive rainy seasons.

The severe drought conditions have already taken toll on lives and livelihoods and the situation could deteriorate further if urgent assistance is not provided.

The report revealed that nearly 2.7 million children are currently suffering from severe acute malnutrition.

And this figure is expected to rise significantly if support to vulnerable population is not immediately provided.

SADC Director for Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources, Mrs. Margaret Nyirenda has therefore called upon member states and development partners to act now, to avoid a further deterioration of the situation.

Mrs. Nyirenda said that people continue to lose their means of survival and we can lose lives if we do not act now.

Almost half a million drought-related livestock deaths have been reported in Botswana, Swaziland, South Africa and Zimbabwe alone.

Water sources and reservoirs are severely depleted, forcing communities and their livestock to use untreated water sources.

South Africa, usually the main producer of maize in the region, is facing an estimated 2.6 million metric tons of deficit.

Zambia is the only country with a cereal surplus of 556,000 tons.