UNDP raises $60m for food aid in drought hit Zimbabwe

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has on Thursday in Harare raised 60 million dollars for food aid in Zimbabwe, with a promise to feed 1 million people as the country faces its worst drought in a quarter century.



Bishow Parajuli, the UNDP Head of Mission in Zimbabwe, said they planned to raise 130 million dollars under an emergency fund.

Zimbabwean Vice President, Emmerson Mnangagwa, had earlier appealed for nearly 1.6 billion dollars in aid to help pay for grain and other food after a drought in the country.

He said the appeal has become imperative because the country’s harvest was badly affected and left 3 million people in need.

Mnangagwa said farmers in Zimbabwe have lost cattle and crops to drought but fear the worst was yet to come.

He said Zimbabwe was struggling to emerge from a steep 1999 - 2008 recession that saw its economy shrink by more than 40 per cent and the drought was expected to exacerbate its problems.

Credit:Reuters