The application of many African cities to complete isolation measures to combat the new epidemic of the Coronavirus has resulted in hunger for millions of people who have lost their jobs.
Reuters reported that hunger and anger are increasing in many African cities, which lack the networks to protect the poor from the economic consequences of the Coruna epidemic.
The agency quoted the World Food Program as saying that at least 20 percent of Africa's 1.2 billion people already suffer from malnutrition, the largest in the world.
The program added that poverty - with dependence on imported food and high prices due to the epidemic - may be fatal if governments do not take swift action.
They find nothing
in their lives. In Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa - and because of the new restrictions imposed by these countries - millions of people who depend on daily wages do not find their ways.
Many of them work in commerce, handicrafts, and crafts in the informal market, which includes 85% of the workforce on this poor continent, and they must now stay at home without the savings that support them.
According to data from the Non-Profit Food Bank initiative in the Nigerian capital, Lagos, three out of seven of the city's 20 million inhabitants were unable to obtain sufficient food continuously in normal circumstances.
The general isolation measures, which lasted for 14 days and then extended for another two weeks on Monday, prompted millions of others to enter the category of those who need help.
Death by starvation
Lagos-based SBM Intelligence Consulting, a risk consultancy, said food prices had risen as residents scrambled to store food. The price of imported rice increased by 11%, and the price of gary, a staple food, increased almost twice.
| Bread distributed to the poor in Lagos last week (Reuters) |
The head of the food bank, Michel Sambulla, said that the contacts his organization receives from the needy residents are 50% higher than usual, noting that some of them are walking five hours to obtain food.
The local Lagos government is trying to help. The Commissioner of Agriculture, Bulahan Lawal, said that this government distributed two hundred thousand food bags in the first weeks of the general isolation, and hoped to distribute two million more bags soon. The federal government promised financial subsidies for the poorest in the country, as well as cards for food.
Trivial Grants
But online video footage showing Lagos residents tearing up what they consider trivial grants.
Mohamed Zana (from the Informal Settlements and Informal Settlements Federation of Nigeria) said that the miserable residents attacked his truck while he was trying to deliver food to the disabled on Monday in the Agig district.
Gangs of men armed with knives and iron bars roared the area and his truck, which fled quickly, chased away. This official described Agig as a "war zone". His group could no longer distribute food in some areas without police escort.
In Kenya, the authorities imposed a new curfew, and restricted the movement of everything except food to and from the capital Nairobi, the epicenter of the outbreak of Corona.
Unrest and
stampede Sunday, hundreds of residents of Kibera, the city's largest slum, while opposition leader Raila Odinga distributes aid. The next day, the government blocked the direct distribution of aid, and insisted that it pass through the government to prevent "avoidable disturbances."
Kennedy Audidi - whose charity "Shining Hope" (the Shining Hope) is operating in the Kibera region - said the restrictions could cause more trouble.
He added that food is more important than Corona, and that the government should be aware of how desperate people are, “They may risk their lives for food.”
In South Africa's Gauteng region - which includes Johannesburg and Pretoria - the government distributes food to 54,000 people it considers at risk because of public isolation measures.
However, even before the imposition of isolation, at least 16% of the region's 12 million people needed food aid, according to government estimates.