Rural areas worst hit as massive fall in food production causes severe hunger for a quarter of country\u2019s population Global development is supported by<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Silence Charumbira in Maseru<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thu 30 Jan 2020 02.00 ESTLast modified on Thu 30 Jan 2020 07.09 EST<\/p>\n\n\n\n
T\u0161epo Molapo gazes into space, worrying about where the next meal will come from. Next to him, his two-year-old granddaughter plays, oblivious of their desperate situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Molapo\u2019s children all died at illegal mines in neighbouring South Africa<\/a>, where they had trekked in search of work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Molapo, 80, relies on a monthly government pension payout of about $48 (\u00a337) but the paltry amount cannot feed him and the eight grandchildren he cares for on his own following the death of his wife.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI do not know how I am going to survive with my grandchildren,\u201d Molapo says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the UN, more than 500,000 people \u2013 a quarter of Lesotho\u2019s population \u2013 face severe hunger due to droughts that caused a 60% fall in cereal production last year, compared with 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At least 71,000 people in rural areas are \u201cone step away from famine\u201d, says Jens Laerke, spokesperson from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which in December launched a $34m flash appeal<\/a> for more funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe can\u2019t plant any crops in this drought situation. The rains only came last December and everything we had planted had wilted. We have no livestock left to sell or exchange for grain. So, unless we get help, we are just going to starve,\u201d says Molapo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Last October, the government declared a national disaster over the food crisis, appealing to its development partners for help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the attention of minister appears to have been diverted by internal conflict and unrest in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The prime minister, Thomas Thabane, has been at the centre of of a power struggle with his party deputy, Nqosa Mahao. Thabane, who leads the All Basotho Convention, the major player in a four-party governing coalition, has been called for police questioning<\/a> over alleged links to the murder of his estranged wife, and has said he will step down<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The government has also faced strikes<\/a> and threats of strikes by teachers, nurses and factory workers, who are demanding wage increases and improved working conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unprecedented strike action by magistrates, doctors<\/a> and police officers has also taken place in recent months. The magistrates and doctors have sued the government for pay rises and better conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The government\u2019s efforts to secure budget support from the International Monetary Fund have so far hit a brick wall, with the organisation imposing conditions that include reducing the high public wage bill, public financial management reforms and the implementation of the much-delayed multi-sector reforms<\/a>, aimed at bringing greater stability to Lesotho, that were recommended by the Southern African Development Community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The EU ambassador to Lesotho<\/a>, Christian Manahl, told the Guardian that February\u2019s budget speech will indicate what the government intends to do to address the food crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe are waiting for the new budget to be presented, this will give us an idea about the government\u2019s own efforts to address the challenges created by the drought of last year,\u201d Manahl said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The European commission is mobilising<\/a> a \u20ac1.5m (\u00a31.2m) humanitarian aid package to support people in the four districts \u2013 Mohale\u2019s Hoek, Mafeteng, Quthing and Qacha\u2019s Nek \u2013 that have been worst hit by drought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The World Food Programme (WFP) is expecting to reach 174,000 people with monthly mobile cash payments to eligible families over the next six months. Those unable to access mobile money will receive food parcels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Napo Ntlou, the WFP\u2019s emergency coordinator for Lesotho, said that even when there is no drought, the agency provides assistance to at least 200,000 people annually in the country\u2019s southern districts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe have engaged the government to have some projects related to building the resilience of people in the southern districts. In our five-year country strategic plan, we have a resilience component which is going to be undertaken in the southern parts of the country to ensure that at least when there are shocks, the people can recover very quickly,\u201d Ntlou said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Mathabo Tlalajoe, from Mohale\u2019s Hoek, it will take more than $52 a month to feed her family of seven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe intervention is welcome but it\u2019s still not enough. We hope that the next vulnerability assessment will give us more,\u201d Tlalajoe said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Rural areas worst hit as massive fall in food production causes severe hunger for a quarter of country\u2019s population Global development is supported by Silence Charumbira in Maseru Thu 30 Jan 2020 02.00 ESTLast modified on Thu 30 Jan 2020 07.09 EST T\u0161epo Molapo gazes into space, worrying about where the next meal will come from. Next to him, his two-year-old granddaughter plays, oblivious of… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4045"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4045\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4072,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4045\/revisions\/4072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}