UN Seeks Mexico Corn for Record Southern Africa El Nino Response
- UN’s World Food Programme to assist 27 million people
- Organization needs $400 million, 290,000 tons of corn
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The United Nations’ World Food Programme is seeking 290,000 tons of corn from as far afield as Mexico and Ukraine as its mounts its biggest ever drought response in Southern Africa after the El Nino weather phenomenon scorched crops across the region.
With Zimbabwe’s staple corn crop having plunged about 70% and those in Zambia and Malawi also decimated, the WFP is trying to raise about $400 million to fund its response. While it would usually rely on South Africa for corn supplies, normally the continent’s biggest exporter, that country’s crop also fell by about a fifth, limiting the amount of grain available for export.