Authorities in Zimbabwe and the United Nations on Thursday launched an emergency humanitarian plan worth $715 million to help a third of the country’s population, threatened by famine and at high risk of the coronavirus epidemic.

Targeting 5.6 million people, the plan priorities food aid, water and sanitation, health, education and shelter among other life-saving and life-sustaining support to vulnerable people, including the residual humanitarian needs of Cyclone Idai-affected communities and ongoing support to refugees.

“It is extremely important that the food system keeps on functioning,” World Food Programme regional director Lola Castro said.

“It is very critical to maintain that.”

So far Zimbabwe has confirmed eight Covid-19 cases including one death.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Monday ordered the country’s 16 million people to stay at home for three weeks, hoping to slow the spread of the disease.

The impact of the pandemic could be catastrophic for the southern African country, which has a poor healthcare system.

Zimbabwe’s economy has been in a slump for more than a decade, experiencing multiple climate and economic related shocks including chronic shortages of cash, fuel, medicines and food.

“Today the Covid-19 Pandemic is the latest shock impacting on the well-being and livelihoods of Zimbabweans,” said Sirak Gebrehiwot, UN Communications Specialist in Zimbabwe.

But “food insecurity remains the major concern with over 4.3 million people, or 46% of the rural population, requiring continued assistance.”

An estimated seven million people in the country need multi-sectoral humanitarian support according to the UN, and rising urban vulnerability has left some 2.2 million people food insecure.

By Dr Mercy Alu

I am a mother, HR consultant, author, Goodwill Ambassador with Globcal (a partner with UN on SDG's in Africa), coordinator with International Association of African Authors/Scholars, a songwriter/recording artist, researcher, and social anthropologist of sorts! I believe we should all live our best lives, and enjoy helping organizations and individuals perform better. I and my guest authors love to share information about the world around us; African events & Entertainment, plus lots of good information about Health, Wellness, Family, Book Publishing, Business, Relationships, Culture, Folk Stories, and much more. I speak several languages including French and Igbo (a West African Language). I enjoy research, writing, reading, singing and finding out lots of things about, well, lots of things! Knowledge is power. So information and knowledge gained from experiences, observation, all flavor the things I write about in the exciting blog portion of this website. Feel free to drop me a line or two, I also want to hear from you!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *