Malawi makes desperate appeal for food aid
Malawi's government is issuing an urgent plea for food aid saying people are beginning to die from hunger-related illnesses.
The food shortage is partly blamed on two successive years of flooding, which has also wrecked the country's road and rail network.
Schools in rural areas have closed or reported falling attendance, as children stay home to help their parents look for food.
Hospitals have reported a surge in admissions of malnourished children.
Vice president Justin Malewezi said he had just completed a tour of several parts of the country to assess food shortages, and almost everywhere local leaders complained people were going hungry.
He added mainly children had died, but did not specify how many. He recounted stories of babies dying on their mother's backs as they stood in lines waiting to buy corn.
"It's important that action be taken now in order to prevent a worse calamity," he said. "Although I don't have the statistics we have reached a crisis."
When Malawi appealed for food aid last year, donors believed while there would be corn shortages, other food such as potatoes and cassava roots would still be available, but these crops had not materialized.
While 150,000 tons (165,000 short tons) of corn had been bought from South Africa, this was insufficient to feed everyone and there were logistical problems distributing it, Malewezi said.
Key bridges on a railway line used to transport corn through Mozambique to Malawi had been washed away by floods, while another railway line in Zimbabwe was not operational, preventing delivery of some of the food.
