Zimbabwe: Mugabe government halts food aid

More than one third of the Zimbabwean population is dependent on food aid. Some 1.3 million of the four million people who face starvation as a result of the governments ban on aid agencies are children under the age of five who have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS.

In the past Mugabe has always been able to rely on support from the countryside, particularly Mashonaland. But in the March elections it was clear that ZANU-PF had lost its electoral heartland and that mass opposition was developing among the rural poor. The ban on food aid is Mugabes response to the collapse of his previous social base.

The order to halt food distributions came as Mugabe was at the world food summit in Rome. He used the occasion to posture as an opponent of imperialism. But behind his cynical rhetoric, he is prepared to starve the most vulnerable sections of the Zimbabwean population rather than relinquish power.

Mugabe and the corrupt elite that surround him are seeking to hold on to power at whatever cost to the rural poor and urban working class. It is estimated that 25,000 people have been displaced since the March election, 65 people are thought to have been killed, a further 200 are reported missing and 3,000 people have been treated in hospital as a result of violent attacks.