UN Threat to Halt Food Aid to Zimbabwe

UN officials threatened to halt food relief to Zimbabwe yesterday if President Mugabe's government goes ahead with plans to take over control of the distribution of aid.

The government this week ordered all international aid agencies to hand food aid to ruling party officials in areas gripped by famine, who would then distribute it.

The order prompted widespread fears that the government would deny the food to people suspected of supporting the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

The UN world food programme warned in a memo this week to all international aid agencies distributing UN food supplies that it would immediately halt the deliveries if the government attempted to interfere in the distribution for political reasons.

Last year the government handed out its own stocks of food, in a blatantly political manner, to deprive those suspected of supporting the opposition, according to numerous witnesses. This year the government does not have any stocks and has threatened to take control of the UN aid.

The government has denied accusations by relief organisations and the opposition that it has used food shipments as a political weapon. The new directive comes ahead of next week's rural council and provincial elections.

The world food programme estimates about that 3.3 million Zimbabweans are in urgent need of supplies. By January, ahead of the next harvests, that number is expected to rise to about 5.5 million, nearly half the population.

Mass starvation in Zimbabwe, once considered the breadbasket of the region, was only averted last year by international aid and food imports.

Last month Zimbabwe launched a belated emergency food appeal. Western donors are still drawing up their aid packages. The EU has donated $30m (£20m).

Long-term development aid has mostly come to a halt in protest at political violence and abuses of human rights in the past three years.

Erratic rains and violent, state-supported seizures of white-owned commercial farms have wrecked the agriculture-based economy. Zimbabwe is suffering shortages of basic foods, petrol, hard currency and banknotes. Inflation has rocketed to 399%.

The WFP has appealed to donors for $308m to feed 6.5 million people in southern Africa in the next 12 months, at least two-thirds of them in Zimbabwe.