The Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit has refuted reports by the International Federation of the Red Cross, that Zambia will soon slide into famine, with 38 districts already in the emergency phase.
DMMU National Coordinator Chanda Kabwe said the Vulnerability and Needs Assessment report, which is now in public domain reveals that 58 districts are in need of humanitarian support, with 3 districts namely Lunga, Gwembe and Shang’ombo being in emergency phase from October 2019 to March 2020.
Mr Kabwe said Government through DMMU has since increased the allocation of relief from 100 metric tonnes to 200 metric tonnes for the three districts, and is yet to include pulses to the package.
He said the Unit is currently providing relief to 1.7 million people that were affected by the prolonged dry spell but the number will increase to 2.3 million from October to March next year.
Mr. Kabwe said it is unfortunate that cooperating partners like the Red Cross would issue such alarming reports, with incorrect statistics.
He has called on members of the public to take time and read the report which has since been launched by the Minister in the Office of the Vice President, Olipah Phiri.
Mr. Kabwe has assured the nation that the situation is under control and that partners have already come on board to supplement government efforts.
He named the United Nations system, China Jiangxi which donated K1million just on Saturday and Zambian Breweries who have indicated the willingness to donate as some of the partners that have come on board to help provide humanitarian support.
Chanda Kabwe, dont waste your time and ours, we would rather believe the independent professional report of ICRC than your fake doctored “report” tainted with PF politics and donchi kubeba.
Saying the same thing differently.
The Red Cross is a much older organisation than Zambia. It certainly has greater name recognition than Zambia and it has no political axes to grind. If Zambia didn’t hv diplomatic missions abroad, some “analysts ” would hv attributed reports like this one from the Red Cross to luck of resident diplomats to argue Zambia’s case. Well they are there in Geneva itself the home of the RC. Why such reports then? The answer is no news agency really bothers with them.
At the dawn of multilateral politics a new Zambia was born. Shifting from the namboard concept the Food Reserve Agency was created the model was simple. Purchase maize in time of plenty, export the excess and in time of little enter the market with stock. It was the hub of grain of last resort. Of course enter politics and a few years down the road this was destroyed and now a famine looms.
This is like pregnancy, you can refuse it for some time but eventually it will show. We will wait up until next harvest then will know.
Red Cross is also a partner; so based on their assessment report Zambia is heading towards famine………..Why iwe Chanda cannot accept their report and you want them to accept your report with 99% errors!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
They want you to accept so that you give them the mandate to raise money through bad publicity. They will paint a bad picture in the west, scare a few people to force them to donate and 90% of the donated funds go towards their running costs. They have done this for years and it’s unfortunate that some people fall for this nonsense. We have enough resources to mitigate the situation we in, we don’t need any of these good for nothing spies to dictate to us. Let’s have some pride and start looking within for solutions to our problems.
The FAO in Zambia hasn’t raised any red flags. They are aware that it’s not the whole country affected but some parts hit by drought. Next story please….
These people will never leave us alone to do things our own way. If they are so concerned about famine why can’t they just go and donate? They want the government to declare a disaster so that they can go in full swing with their bad publicity. They are determined to destroy our economy at all cost so that they can get to our resources without a fight. Why would people who spent the last 300 years enslaving and confiscating our land have a sudden change of heart especially when they are no longer in charge? Zambia was a colony for years, name one thing these people did for indigenous Zambians during that time? If they didn’t do it when they were in charge, what makes us think they will do it now? Please, people, wake up!
Do you know the real reason they gave Africans independence? Forget the claims by so-called freedom fighters that they shed blood to liberate Zambia or other African country. The whites discovered that the African is so incredibly stup!d it would be easier to govern him, steal his resources and keep him in perpetual poverty forever if he is allowed to misgovern himself.
Chanda Kabwe is very dubious character. Wasn’t this the chap who held 2 positions at the same time as if there were no people to fill those positions? He was DC in 2 towns. He’s one of the chaps misleading Edgar
Better to prepare for the worst than to keep on denying until the unthinkable happens.
When a ruling party stops listening and becomes deaf, just know they are on their way out!!!!