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The Living Force
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20081024/twl-kids-dying-of-hunger-in-zimbabwe-3fd0ae9.html
Kids Dying Of Hunger In Zimbabwe
Sky News has obtained new evidence of the scale of the humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe where children are dying of starvation because of food shortages.
Filming secretly inside the country, we also found proof that Robert Mugabe is using his security forces to try to hide the crisis from the world.
In one hospital ward in the eastern province of Manicaland we saw 15 children suffering from severe malnutrition. Mothers clutching their thin infants told us they were getting sicker in the hospital because there was no food there, just milk.
One girl, aged four, could no longer stand because she was so weak.
The hospital is one of several across the country which have been targeted by Zimbabwe's police force as part of an organised campaign to "cover up" the true impact of Mugabe's rule.
One officer, speaking to us anonymously, told us he was among a team ordered to "intimidate and harass" the senior staff into concealing the number of starving children they are treating. He said the nurses were warned they faced arrest if they admitted to anyone that there were malnourished children on the wards.
But one nurse, again speaking anonymously, told us that there had been a significant increase in the number of starving children being admitted and in the number dying.
He said that most malnourished children are dying at home because their parents know Zimbabwe's crippled health system cannot help them.
"Malnutrition among children is a silent emergency," Geoff Foster, a British paediatrician working in Zimbabwe, said. "Children are dying quietly in the villages."
The UN says 3.9 million Zimbabweans need food aid to survive. Next year the figure will rise to 5.1 million - half of the country's population.
The aid agencies, banned from operating in Zimbabwe for three months by Robert Mugabe during the turmoil of the election, are back working again but struggling to feed even a tiny fraction of the people in need.
The police officer who spoke to Sky News said that aid agencies were also being targeted by a campaign of harassment.
"There are roadblocks and we are ordered to search all of their vehicles and we take some of the food that is meant to be used as aid," he said.
In large areas of Zimbabwe most families are now surviving on one meal a day and some have resorted to eating poisonous tree roots and unripe fruits to try to fill their stomachs.
Inflation in the country has topped 231 million per cent and staple foods like maize meal are now too expensive for most to afford, even those with jobs.
The nurses treating the malnourished children in the hospital we visited were earning the equivalent of 10p a week.
Kids Dying Of Hunger In Zimbabwe
Sky News has obtained new evidence of the scale of the humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe where children are dying of starvation because of food shortages.
Filming secretly inside the country, we also found proof that Robert Mugabe is using his security forces to try to hide the crisis from the world.
In one hospital ward in the eastern province of Manicaland we saw 15 children suffering from severe malnutrition. Mothers clutching their thin infants told us they were getting sicker in the hospital because there was no food there, just milk.
One girl, aged four, could no longer stand because she was so weak.
The hospital is one of several across the country which have been targeted by Zimbabwe's police force as part of an organised campaign to "cover up" the true impact of Mugabe's rule.
One officer, speaking to us anonymously, told us he was among a team ordered to "intimidate and harass" the senior staff into concealing the number of starving children they are treating. He said the nurses were warned they faced arrest if they admitted to anyone that there were malnourished children on the wards.
But one nurse, again speaking anonymously, told us that there had been a significant increase in the number of starving children being admitted and in the number dying.
He said that most malnourished children are dying at home because their parents know Zimbabwe's crippled health system cannot help them.
"Malnutrition among children is a silent emergency," Geoff Foster, a British paediatrician working in Zimbabwe, said. "Children are dying quietly in the villages."
The UN says 3.9 million Zimbabweans need food aid to survive. Next year the figure will rise to 5.1 million - half of the country's population.
The aid agencies, banned from operating in Zimbabwe for three months by Robert Mugabe during the turmoil of the election, are back working again but struggling to feed even a tiny fraction of the people in need.
The police officer who spoke to Sky News said that aid agencies were also being targeted by a campaign of harassment.
"There are roadblocks and we are ordered to search all of their vehicles and we take some of the food that is meant to be used as aid," he said.
In large areas of Zimbabwe most families are now surviving on one meal a day and some have resorted to eating poisonous tree roots and unripe fruits to try to fill their stomachs.
Inflation in the country has topped 231 million per cent and staple foods like maize meal are now too expensive for most to afford, even those with jobs.
The nurses treating the malnourished children in the hospital we visited were earning the equivalent of 10p a week.