Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit (DMMU) national coordinator Chanda Kabwe says government has not received any report of anyone dying as a result of the hunger situation in the country.

And Kabwe says government, through the unit, has so far distributed 50,000 metric tons of food to various drought affected districts in the country.

Speaking at a joint press briefing by the Ministry of the Information and the Ministry of Religious Affairs in Lusaka Thursday, Kabwe said 2.3 million people out of the total Zambian population needed food support.

“So far, government has given out 50, 000 metric tons of food to these communities. The breakdown in this 50, 000 metric tons is as follows; Southern Province where we have a lot of noise, we have so far distributed 16, 000 metric tons, Western Province 14, 000 and the remaining 20, 000 metric tons is shared between Lusaka, Central, part of Eastern, and part of Luapula. As government, we have not received any report of anyone dying of hunger. We will find a way of stopping this issue of issuing alarming statements. The highest province that is affected by these climate shocks is Western Province, Southern Province is second and Central and the lowest is Central Province,” Kabwe said.

Kabwe stated that three districts were assessed to be in need of emergency food support while 1.880 people were in a crisis.

“From the 87 districts that we visited, 58 districts are in need of the food support from government. Currently, we are operating in 53 districts. The total number of people that we are servicing now is 1.7 million and the number of people who will be on support line will increase to 2.3 million in the 58 districts. We have stages of hunger in the provinces. We have stage three (03) which is crisis and in stage three, we have 1.880 people. In stage four (04) which is emergency, we have 450, 000 people in three districts namely, Lunga in Luapula Province, Gwembe in Southern Province, Shangombo in Western Province. And government has increased allocation of food support to these three districts who are in stage four of emergency to 200 metric tons per month. This month we will start giving them beans and Kapenta to try and fight the nutrition part of it,” said Kabwe.