{"id":6883,"date":"2019-11-29T11:43:49","date_gmt":"2019-11-29T08:43:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africasustainabilitymatters.com\/?p=6883"},"modified":"2026-01-11T05:30:43","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T05:30:43","slug":"zimbabwe-facing-man-made-starvation-says-un-expert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/2019\/11\/29\/zimbabwe-facing-man-made-starvation-says-un-expert\/","title":{"rendered":"Zimbabwe Facing Man-Made Starvation, Says UN Expert"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>By UN News<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The independent UN human rights expert was presenting her assessment on the current situation in Zimbabwe, concerning all aspects related to the right to food, following an 11-day visit to the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Because of hyperinflation, which, said Ms.\nElver,&nbsp;has reached some 490 per cent, more than 60 per cent of the\npopulation is now \u201cfood-insecure\u201d, in a country once seen as the breadbasket of\nAfrica: \u201cIn rural areas, a staggering 5.5 million people are currently facing\nfood insecurity, as poor rains and erratic weather patterns are impacting\nharvests and livelihoods\u201d, she said. \u201cIn urban areas, an estimated 2.2 million\npeople are food-insecure and lack access to minimum public services, including\nhealth and safe water\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ms. Elver described the figures as \u201cshocking\u201d, and warned\nthat, due to factors such as poverty and high unemployment, widespread corruption,\nsevere price instabilities, and unilateral economic sanctions, the crisis is\ngetting worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Women and children\n\u2018bearing the brunt\u2019<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Women and children are bearing the brunt of the crisis, said the Special Rapporteur, adding that the majority of children she had met were stunted and underweight. According to Ms. Elver, child deaths from severe malnutrition have been rising in recent months, and 90 % of Zimbabwean children aged six months to two years are not consuming the minimum acceptable diet: \u201cI saw the ravaging effects of malnutrition on infants deprived of breast feeding because of their own mothers\u2019 lack of access to adequate food\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/news.un.org\/en\/story\/2019\/11\/1052411\">Read more>><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">&nbsp;<\/h1>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By UN News The independent UN human rights expert was presenting her assessment on the current situation in Zimbabwe, concerning all aspects related to the right to food, following an&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6884,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}