By Beyza Binnur Donmez
GENEVA (AA) - The World Food Program (WFP) on Friday said that more than 27 million people across Southern Africa are food insecure due to El Nino-induced drought sweeping across the region, decimating crops, and livelihoods.
WFP Assistant Executive Director, Programme Operations Valerie Guarnieri told a UN briefing in Geneva that she just returned from a visit to Zimbabwe and Lesotho -- two of the worst affected countries where 50% and 34% of the countries' respective populations are food insecure.
Guarnieri noted that the onset of the lean season – the period between harvests when food can become more scarce – is usually from October to March, but people are facing "an early and much deeper lean season."
"We expect the situation will get worse, given production shortfalls and dwindling supply," she said.
She stressed that some 21 million children, one in every three, are stunted in Southern Africa, and of them, 3.5 million children urgently need nutrition treatment services to prevent them from "sliding deeper into malnutrition" as the lean season progresses.
"In response, WFP is scaling up to provide emergency food and nutrition support to 5.9 million people in 7 countries between now and March 2025," she said.
She lamented the fact that the agency is facing "massive" funding shortfalls that jeopardize its ability to mount a response at the scale required.
WFP has only raised one-fifth of the US$400 million it needs to provide assistance to vulnerable people in seven of the world's hardest-hit countries, she said.