Though Zimbabwe insists that it is prepared to deal with the worsening food crisis, the United Nations (UN) says that so far, there’s little evidence that enough corn is coming in to feed the affected people which is more than half of Zimbabwe's population of 14 million. The UN warns that if the international community fails to come up with adequate funding for food aid to the country, millions of Zimbabweans will go without food within weeks.
"As things stand, we will run out of food by end of February, coinciding with the peak of the hunger season — when needs are at the highest," said Niels Balzar, World Food Programme's (WFP) deputy country director in Zimbabwe. According to Balzar, the hunger crisis, which is the worst in 10 years, is the result both of drought and of long years of mismanagement under Robert Mugabe's 40-year rule.
Corn is a staple food in Zimbabwe. Agriculture Minister Perence Shiri said there’s less than a month’s supply (100,000 tonnes) of corn in Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe’s NewsDay newspaper reported. The government says that it has started importing food, but the UN says that there is no sign of it.