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 JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) - At least 1.7 million Zambians need food, and the situation is deteriorating rapidly, the U.N. food agency warned Friday.
"Villages are on the brink of widespread starvation," World Food Program Country Director David Stevenson said in a statement issued in neighboring South Africa. "There is no maize, wild foods are exhausted, and there's very little food aid on the way for the next six months unless the international community steps in now with cash to stave off a humanitarian catastrophe."
An estimated 12 million people in six southern African countries are expected to need food aid before the next harvest in February and March due to crop failure and the rising cost of grain. In Malawi alone, up to 5 million people — 40 percent of the population — are facing shortages.
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