MASVINGO - About 20 000 flood victims relocated at Chingwizi transit camp in Mwenezi face imminent starvation amid revelations that food stocks are dangerously low.
A visit to the camp last weekend where people are living in squalid conditions resembling a refugee camp, revealed that there was only less than a week’s supply of food.
Villagers said over the past two weeks they had been forced to cut the number of meals per day.
“The situation is dire; we now have only one meal per day as we are told the food in the camp stocks has run out,” said Aaron Chiririma. “We were actually addressed and told that we are only left with rations to last a week and this is not good news to us.”
Government requires about 156 000 tones of maize meal a month to feed the people , according to government statistics.
But under the current liquidity crunch facing the country, government has no capacity to raise funds to feed the people and had been relying on donations that are no longer coming.
The corporate world that has been on the forefront of donating food and other basic commodities have cut their supplies while non governmental organisations are hit by donor fatigue to come to the rescue of the desperate villagers.
Villagers expressed fear that they could starve and be victims of hunger-related diseases.
“We are afraid that we will end up starving to death here and it will be only a matter of time before our kids are affected by disease due to lack of enough food,” said a lady who declined to be named.
Felix Chikovo, Masvingo provincial administrator and Civil Protection Unit chairperson confirmed that stocks were running out.
“Our stocks are not sufficient,” he said. “It’s fortunate that we can still afford to provide people up to sometime this April currently, but we need more supplies.”
Government last week appealed for more aid from well wishers who have not been forthcoming after opening their purse strings over the past three months.
Apart from food shortages, government is in a messy row with victims who are defying orders to leave
Chingwizi and settle in plots pegged for them.
The villagers have vowed to stay put at the camp demanding compensation for the structures destroyed by the floods.