Canadian aid agencies are scrambling to help head off a deepening famine in southern Africa that's expected to turn into a crisis by midsummer if food aid is not increased soon. Severe crop failures due to extreme weather conditions -- drought, heavy rains and even frost -- have affected people in Malawi, Mozambique, Angola, Lesotho, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. At least 10 million people are at risk of starvation, according to the United Nations. Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa is appealing for international assistance after declaring his country's food shortage a national disaster and noting that four million Zambians could starve. "Sixty per cent of families in the seven districts of Zambia that are hardest hit are without any harvested staple crops left," Brenda Cupper, a Canadian who is the country director for CARE International in Zambia, said from Lusaka yesterday. "We anticipate that 90 per cent won't have food by June or July . . . the priority is to get food in, and fast." According to the Famine Early Warning System used by international aid agencies, the region will need at least three million tonnes of food aid before early 2003, to make up for crop shortfalls. "Usually [at] this time of year, you go into the villages, and the grain bins are full and there is lots of activity," said Miriam Wiebe, a World Vision Canada nutritionist based in Lilongwe, Malawi, which was declared a disaster area in February. "But now the villages are quiet; nobody has the energy to get up. The bins are empty . . . and while some malnutrition among children is expected, I have been shocked at how much adult malnutrition I've seen. . . . They're eating the roots and bark of trees, anything they can find." A spokeswoman for the Canadian International Development Agency, which donated $1.65-million in food aid and $1.5-million in health assistance to the region in March and April, said the federal agency recently sent staff to assess conditions in Malawi, Angola and Zimbabwe. "We are closely monitoring the situation . . . and looking at funding different proposals," CIDA spokeswoman Ginette Lebreton said yesterday. Meanwhile, World Vision Canada will launch a $1-million public appeal for southern Africa next week, in addition to sending emergency food aid, tools and seeds to its 183,000 sponsored families in the affected countries. Oxfam Canada said its response includes tools and seeds because many people have been eating their seeds and have nothing to sow in the next growing season. CARE Canada sends support to its agencies in affected countries such as Zambia, where CARE workers help distribute food for the UN World Food Program. In Zambia, Ms. Cupper said she has just received notice that the food quota would double. "We'll soon be distributing 1,200 metric tons of food a month," she said. "But that's still 20 to 30 per cent of what we need to get out in the next couple of months," Ms. Cupper added. What distinguishes this crisis from past famines are compounding factors that have hammered southern Africa's ability to cope, Ms. Cupper said. HIV/AIDS infection rates in some countries mean that as many as one in five people are unable to work, livestock have been battered by disease in some places and political and economic instability in countries such as Zimbabwe hamper response programs. "In previous years, if somebody had a couple of goats or a chicken, they could sell them to tide their family over," Ms. Wiebe said of the situation in Malawi. "But this is the third year of difficulty, and families here don't have backup goats and chickens any more.":
