UN cuts rations for a million Zimbabweans
January 15, 2014  01:21
Around a million poverty-stricken Zimbabweans face hunger after the UN World Food Programme announced today it was cutting food rations due to a cash crunch.

"We'd been hoping to have scaled up our seasonal relief operations... in the coming months with distributions of food and, in some areas, cash," Tomson Phiri, WFP spokesman in Zimbabwe, said as the country enters the peak of the so-called hunger season. 

But "we've had to cut rations for one million of our beneficiaries in recent months and there are likely to be deeper cuts as from next month," Phiri said in a statement. 

At least 2.2 million people -- a quarter of Zimbabwe's rural population -- will need food aid until the next harvest in May, according to estimates by aid agencies and government departments.

Food prices have doubled since last year, forcing many more into hardship, according to the WFP. 

The UN food agency needs $80 million to feed hungry Zimbabweans in the next six months. 
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