Over six million people face hunger, malnutrition and water scarcity in Zambia, Oxfam has warned.
Oxfam warns that over six million people from farming families in Zambia are facing acute food shortages and malnutrition until next growing season, which is twelve months away, due to a severe drought, which has caused massive crop failures for half of the nation’s “planted area.
The drought has forced the Zambian government to declare a national disaster and emergency.
Oxfam Zambia Country Representative Yvonne Chibiya, , says Oxfam and partners are doing further assessments in the targeted districts to inform the humanitarian response.
Mrs.Chibiya said Oxfam urgently needs 6 million Euros to provide 600,000 people with cash transfers and clean water, help with winter cropping, and improving local sanitation and hygiene services to prevent a resurgence of cholera outbreak.
And Keepers Zambia Foundation DirectorEzra Banda, says this crisis is coming at the time when the country is still recovering from the worst cholera outbreak that has claimed more than 700 lives, on top of another dry spell and last year’s flooding