The Wire

Just one month after Dr Robert Mugabe’s re-election as the President of Zimbabwe, the country is on the brink of starvation. The Famine Early Warning System, an arm of US Aid, says that most people cannot afford food and that the summer grain harvest will not be enough to feed the population. The news follows real concerns about the legitimacy the re-election of Mugabe, with allegations of voter fraud and multiple voting by Mugabe supporters. There are also concerns that those worst hit by the famine will be those that have opposed Mugabe’s rule, with reports that in the past the President has withheld food aid from those supporting opposition groups. Dr David Dorward, the Director of the Africa Research Institute at La Trobe University. He told the Wire’s Erica Vowles about the scale of the catastrophe unfolding in Zimbabwe.