The number of hungry people in Malawi is worsening rapidly and likely to rise by a million to 3.3 million this month alone, the UN World Food Programme has warned.
"Hunger is worsening at an astonishing rate," said Mr Gerard Van Dijk, WFP country director in Malawi, as he launched a project to move emergency food aid into the southern African country by rail as well as by road.
The European Union today announced that it had given €3 million to the country to help feed thousands people. More than 500,000 children and 100,000 pregnant and breast-feeding mothers require emergency food.
The money will pay for 6,000 tonnes of maize to be milled and processed into nutritional and vitamin-fortified products, the EU said.
The country needs 600,000 tonnes of maize, the staple food, to stave off famine threatening up to 3.3 million of the country's 11 million people.
Mr Van Dijk warned that "the number of hungry people will jump by one million from 2.3 million to 3.3 million in December and it is absolutely essential we do everything possible to reach each vulnerable man, woman and child".
AFP