‘Hunger Gap’ Looms for African Food Crisis: UN

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – A late infusion of relief funds has kept food flowing to millions of hungry people in southern Africa, but the emergency will sharpen soon as stockpiles dwindle before the next big harvest, the UN World Food Program (WFP) said on Monday.

WFP officials said fresh donations totaling more than $25 million had been received in recent weeks, maintaining relief supplies for some 12 million people caught in a “hunger belt” stretching across Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, Lesotho and Swaziland.

The donations, the largest of which came from Japan, the African Development Bank, Germany and Canada, mean that millions of lives will be saved, officials said.

“These donations have come just in time to keep the food pipeline flowing, but we are not out of danger yet,” Judith Lewis, WFP’s southern Africa coordinator, said in a statement.

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