The Famine Early Warning System says the cereal balance sheet projects a shortfall in maize – the staple food – of some 850,000 tonnes. By December only 152,600 tonnes had been delivered, meaning widespread hunger looks set to continue. The monitors say Zimbabwe’s lack of foreign currency [...]]]> From the “never saw that one coming…” department:

The Famine Early Warning System says the cereal balance sheet projects a shortfall in maize – the staple food – of some 850,000 tonnes.
By December only 152,600 tonnes had been delivered, meaning widespread hunger looks set to continue.
The monitors say Zimbabwe’s lack of foreign currency is a key problem.

Full BBC story here.

This one is going to get a lot worse before it gets better. Mugabe’s actions have directly lead to Zimbabwe falling off the map of world media attention, for better and for much worse. The inability of everyone in the SADC region to say anything (read Thabo Mbeki) has only served to further this. Bob passed years ago.

I think that many know that Zimbabwe’s situation and the inevitable course of resolution (whatever that may be) is going to be something akin to a watershed moment for Southern Africa. The politics of Zimbabwe have always been sticky, but oh how the mighty have fallen and now everyone finds that their tongues are tied when it comes to speaking about Bob.

This op-ed piece from Kigali serves to highlight some of the issues and shows how messy the situation is.

Millions have fled Zimbabwe or died from hunger, disease and violence. The life expectancy is barely half what it was 15 years ago and the economy has shrunk by 40 per cent this century. And it is all the work of dictator Robert Mugabe and his partners in crime who have entrenched their political power and economic authority by torturing, starving and killing their own people.

On a related note South Africa deported 109,532 Zimbabweans in 2006. Here.