Zimbabwe : IMF Calls For Urgent Aid

The International Monetary Fund says Zimbabwe needs hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid in coming months to fend off a humanitarian crisis that’s likely to leave more than half of the population hungry.
“The outbreak has greatly amplified uncertainty and downside risks around the outlook,” the IMF said in an Article IV report, released on Friday, April 3, 2020”. An economic crisis marked by a dire shortage of foreign currency and power supply, coupled with the drought has increased the number of poor people in what was once one of Africa’s most-industrialized countries. 
The fund estimates that the economy contracted 8.3% last year. Though the report was largely compiled before the coronavirus reached Zimbabwe, the country to-date has nine confirmed infections and, like much of the region, the government has imposed a lockdown to halt the spread of the virus which might complicate an economy in agony.
“Absent a scaling-up of donor support, the risks of a deep humanitarian crisis are high,” the IMF said. Only half of the humanitarian aid requested by the United Nations to help about 8 million people has been pledged, it added.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who promised far-reaching political and economic reforms after replacing Robert Mugabe in 2017, hasn...