Hunger Stalks Southern Africa as El Nino Decimates Harvests
- Ten percent of region's population may need food aid
- El Nino to blamed for failure of corn, cassava harvests
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Mudhara Musara points a gnarled finger at his small field of dying corn, burnt blue-gray by the broiling sun over Zimbabwe’s northern Lower Guruve District where midday temperatures approach 50 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).
“Even if it rains now, all is lost,” said Musara, who puts his age at “about 80” and wears a torn, faded sports jacket over his skeletal frame. “Planting again in January makes the season too short, the yield would be pathetic. Besides, the drought seems set to continue. This year people will die.”