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Minister sent to Monduli after deaths report
2006-02-14 07:46:06
By Guardian Reporter
Prime Minister Edward Lowassa has sent Mizengo Pinda, Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office (Regional Administration and Local Governments), to Monduli District to confirm reports that two children have died of hunger.
Lowassa on Sunday directed Pinda, who was in Dodoma attending the current parliamentary session, to leave for Monduli on a fact-finding mission immediately, according to a press statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office in Dodoma.
Lowassa also directed the minister to forward to him a report on his assessment of the situation on the ground as soon as possible.
Pinda was dispatched to Monduli, which happens to be the prime minister’s home district and the area he represents in Parliament, after a local weekly reported on Sunday that two children had died of hunger in the area.
The newspaper claimed that six-year-old Nanginyi Surukubu and Loniti Lekitony Laikenya, whose age was not immediately known, died at Engikaret Village last week, adding that they were the first victims of famine that had gripped various parts of the country.
A local leader, Ngibile Ngilenyi, was quoted as saying that the area had been hit by an acute shortage of food and that children and elderly people were fainting because of hunger.
Monduli District Commissioner Anthony Malley said he was not aware of the deaths, although he confirmed that the food situation in the area was ’’very serious’’.
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