Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa has assured the international community that there will be no politicization of food handouts as the government brings relief to hunger-stricken citizens.
Addressing foreign diplomats accredited to Zimbabwe at a New Year reception he hosted for them on Thursday night, he said while the government had achieved most of the set targets under its Transitional Stabilization Program, successive droughts and the effects of Tropical Cyclone Idai in 2019 had eroded some of the successes.
“Our immediate priority is to guarantee food security for our people. There shall be no politicization of food distribution,” he said.
His utterances were immediately welcomed as “very important” by European Union head of delegation to Zimbabwe Timo Olkkonen.
“A very important message and commitment from H.E @edmnangagwa at today’s New Year reception with diplomats: ‘There shall be no politicization of food distribution’. Many thanks for organizing the event,” Olkkonen said on Twitter on Friday.
A total of 7.7 million people — about half the country’s population — will need food assistance in 2020, according to the World Food Program (WFP).
Zimbabwe government officials have often been accused of favoring ruling ZANU-PF party supporters and abandoning the opposition in the distribution of food aid.
Hilal Elver, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food, said in late 2019 that she was also concerned about reports that food relief was being distributed along partisan lines which favored supporters of the ruling ZANU-PF party.
According to the UN, 90 percent of Zimbabwean children aged six months to two years are not consuming the minimum acceptable diet.
WFP in January also placed Zimbabwe among 15 critical and complex emergencies at risk of deteriorating further into crisis if there is no rapid response to the prevailing food insecurity. Enditem
