Hungry in Zimbabwe

Washington Post, July 20

Reports indicate that more than 2 million Zimbabweans will suffer from food shortages this year. President Robert Mugabe disagrees. Referring to international food aid, he asked Britain’s Sky News, “Why foist this food upon us? We don’t want to be choked.”

Because the UN World Food Program operates only at government request, officials “have little choice but to ignore the evidence around them ….” With this and other international aid groups in retreat, the situation is dire, especially considering how many Zimbabweans depend on the aid. At the peak in 2003, “UN facilities fed more than 6.5 million people, more than half the nation’s population of 12 million.”