sources at Balaka District hospital told Nyasa Times the hospital is
receiving many children who come wasted from days of hunger.
A visit to Balaka and Mulanje District Hospitals proved that most of
the beds in the children’s ward were taken up by children with serious
cases of malnutrition and dehydration.
Hospital authorities however told Nyasa Times that they were frightened
by government not to report hunger-related deaths in the media.
Most of these children were relying on mangoes as their food for many
days, said a hospital official in Balaka [name withheld].
Balaka District Commissioner James Manyetera is on record saying about 21,000 farming families in the district lack food.
A visit to at Tambala village in Mulanje showed that villagers were
eating wild seeds as a supplement to their diminishing stock of maize.
Jackson Muheya a guard at one of the motels in Mulanje said he could not afford to buy a 50 kg bag of maize at K4, 000.
Muheya said his family has been surviving on maize husks but was quick to say the husks are on demand and also scarce.
In most rural districts several hunger-related deaths largely go unreported.
Government officials have been on denial that the country is facing
food shortage but opposition leaders have asked President Bingu wa
Mutharika to swallow his pride and declare the food crisis as a
national disaster.
Critics say that the government’s handling of the food situation could have been better.
Furthermore, there are reports of cholera outbreaks in several parts of the country.
Nyasa Times