Malima People in Sinazongwe district has appealed to government to airlift relief food to the affected disaster areas that were still inaccessible to save them from the alarming hunger situation prevailing in the area.
Malima Area Development Committee (ADCs) Chairperson Judith Mubbonu said in a letter made available to ZANIS that 95 percent of families were in danger of severe hunger and malnutrition.
Ms. Mubbonu said floods destroyed 10 bridges in the Malima making the area to be inaccessible by road.
She said transporters of food stuffs from urban areas to Malima and Chiyabi were failing to deliver it prompting few people that were using ox-carts to sale a 25 kg roller mealie-meal bag at K40, 000.
“This situation is so alarming to Malima people because they are unable to buy the basic commodities we will surely die of hunger here,” Ms. Mubbone said.
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The Malima ward Councilor Fisher Zimana said people were now feeding on world fruits.
He said the situation has resulted in children failing to go to School because they have no food at their homes.
Mr. Zimana said most people were moving about to look for piece work to enable them to buy food.
Last week Sinazongwe District Commissioner (DC) Lavain Apuleni said despite Sinazongwe district being the first to be hit with floods the Disaster Management and Mitigation Unite (DMMU) under the office of the vice president has not yet sent the relief food.
Since the floods started the district has only received 300 bags of 25 kg mealie-meal and 175 blankets from the Anglican Church in Lusaka.
However, Zambia Air Force (ZAF) with officials from the DMMU has set up a base at Choma Airstrip for the relief exercise.
Choma District Commissioner, Mungoni Simulilika who flagged off the exercise on Saturday, said about 700 x 25 kilogramme bags of mealie meal, food supplements and other relief items would be airlifted from Choma to Namwala and Itezhi-Tezhi districts in an exercise that is expected to last about three days.
[ZANIS]
