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Lesotho appeals for emergency aid as drought worsens

Xinhua, February 6, 2016 Adjust font size:

Lesotho's Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili on Friday appealed for emergency aid as a severe drought in the country intensified, putting some 650, 000 people at risk of starvation.

Most of those at risk from Lesotho's two million population are children, breastfeeding mothers and HIV patients, said the prime minister, appealing to development partners to come to the aid of his country.

"The number of vulnerable people will increase to 650, 000 while the food security situation is expected to improve only in 2017 if the rainfall pattern improves significantly for the next summer cropping," Mosisili said.

"Very little of such ploughing has happened. I have never seen so many fields lie fallow in a cropping season in this country," he said.

According to the prime minister, Lesotho needs an additional 450 million rand, or about 28 million US dollars to respond to the severe drought.

"At this point the number of food insecure people is estimated at 33 percent of our rural population. In addition, signs of malnutrition were already being observed in children," he said.

"Livestock diseases such as anthrax were being observed in some parts of the country even areas where such outbreaks are rare."

Lesotho is one of the Southern African countries hard hit by a persistent drought.

The World Food Program (WFP) estimated last month that 14 million people are facing hunger in Southern Africa due to prolonged dry spells that led to a poor harvest last year.

The WFP said the El Nino global weather event is leading to even worse drought across the region, which is already affecting this year's crop. Enditem