Some 12 million people in southern Africa, mainly in Zimbabwe and Malawi, need emergency food aid, the United Nations said on Tuesday, saying the situation in the region was serious despite South Africa's bumper harvest. In its latest Africa report, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said good harvests were expected in the Sahel region below the Sahara desert, after a severe food crisis in 2004/05 which hit income and nutrition levels hard. The 2005 harvest was also generally better than last year in eastern Africa, and food availability was expected to improve in most countries, although malnutrition rates were still high in several states because of war and past droughts. "Cereal import requirements in sub-Saharan Africa in 2005/06 are expected to remain high," FAO said. Total food aid needs in 2004/05 were estimated at 3.3 million tonnes, about the same as in 2003/04. Food insecurity was of "serious concern" in southern Africa.
