EU increases drought relief for Zimbabwe

The European Union has given 2.49 million U.S. dollars to Zimbabwe to help families facing hunger due to the El Nino-induced drought last year.

The drought left a quarter of the country's population in need of food aid, with the lean season peaking from January to March 2017.

The EU said in a statement Thursday that the additional financial support is being delivered through the EU's Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid (ECHO).

The aid came barely five months after the EU allocated another 8 million dollars from the reserve of the 11th European Development Fund to address the impact of the crises through various resilience-building initiatives.

This latest allocation brings the total contribution by the EU to combat the crisis to 106 million euros (approximately 114 million dollars), the EU said.

Recent flooding experienced in southern parts of the country had also exacerbated the already fragile situation, the EU said.

The additional funding, according to the EU, will allow EU's implementing partners, including the UN World Food Programme and Save the Children to increase the reach of actions started in 2016 until the end of the lean season.

The Save the Children project targets over 58,000 affected people in four districts with humanitarian food assistance through mobile cash transfers while the WFP project targets over 67,000 beneficiaries, assisting them through cash transfers.

"The worst has been avoided and we now have to prepare for the future, building more resilient communities against future climate shocks and other hazards," said EU Head of Delegation Philippe Van Damme. Endit