Guatemala
Declares Hunger Crisis
Guatamala -
Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom has
declared a "state of public calamity" to try
to mobilise funding to tackle severe food
shortages in the country.
Officials say 54,000 families living in an
area prone to extreme weather are in a
critical situation.
So far this year, some 25 children are
believed to have died of hunger.
The UN's World Food Programme (WFP)
announced it would start distributing 20
tonnes of nutritional biscuits to the worst
affected areas.
President Colom made his announcement on
Tuesday, saying the declaration of a state
of public calamity would help the government
to access the funding and resources needed
to tackle the food crisis.
"There is food, what is lacking is the money
for the affected people to buy food," Mr
Colom said. "We are not going to wait until
we've reached starvation levels to act."
The move allows the government to make
emergency purchases of food.
'Dry corridor'
Officials say the crisis has been caused by
a combination of adverse weather, poor soil
and the effects of the global economic
downturn.
The worst affected areas are in what is
known as the "dry corridor" in the east of
the country.
Some 54,000 families there are suffering
severe food shortages, after the failure of
their crops of corn and beans.
Authorities say a further 300,000 people in
this region could also be heading for
shortages of food this year.
The WFP, which operates a feeding programme
in Guatemala for some 350,000 people, was to
begin distributing high energy biscuits.
According to the UN's children's agency,
Unicef, almost half of Guatemala's children
suffer chronic malnutrition.
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