Children die as food shortages and starvation grip the nation

By Alex Bell
15 October 2008

The severe food crisis in Zimbabwe is putting the lives of the country’s children at great risk – with many youngsters already beginning to succumb to the effects of malnutrition, disease and starvation.

Aid agencies have predicted that up to 5 million Zimbabweans will face starvation by January, but the present crisis and unraveling humanitarian disaster is already taking its toll and an entire generation of children is unlikely to survive as far the end of the year. At the same time farmers unions have said that food aid will be vital for at least the next eighteen months because of poor harvest projections for the upcoming farming season. In an act of great cruelty the government banned food aid distribution in June. This has been partially lifted and aid agencies are now battling to try to get food to those who are most desperate and at risk.

Journalist Jan Raath went on an undercover journey through the eastern province of Manicaland and described to Newsreel a terrible scene of death and suffering. Raath said the country’s reserves of food are clearly exhausted and the diseases related to hunger “kwashiorkor, marasmus and pellagra are appearing to a degree never seen in the country before.”

“Emaciated children are being taken to hospitals, but half of those are being turned away,” Raath explained. “Half of those lucky enough to be admitted die and God knows what happens to those that are sent home.” He said the smallest victims of the country’s combined crises all carry signs of kwashiorkor. “Their hair is clumps on what look like oversized heads and their bodies are swollen with oedema,” Raath described.

Pellagra, an adult form of malnutrition that ends in madness and death, is also starting to become common and not just in the impoverished rural areas. Raath said that three private doctors had seen patients with severe symptoms in the past fortnight. “It means even the middle class are starving,” Raath said.

The partial lifting of the food aid ban has only seen a trickling in of much needed, critical aid, and Raath has no doubts that the present situation could have been avoided. “The main reason that we now see so many children dying is because of the food aid ban,” Raath said. He explained that hospitals, which should be regarded as a safe haven to receive food and treatment, are unable to feed the sick. “They receive one day’s supply of milk, but then get nothing for five days straight,” Raath said. He went on to say that “the Government is doing its best to cover up the situation and most doctors are told not to talk about the situation publicly.” He added that many doctors cannot approach aid agencies for food, for fear of revealing how desperate the situation is.

“It clearly shows that the government has no interest or concern for the people,” he said.