The European Commission has allocated €9 million for food aid to Zimbabwe two days after the United Nations (UN) said donors remain reluctant to give financial support to fight hunger in the southern African nation.

Karel De Gucht, commissioner for development and humanitarian aid, said the humanitarian and food situation in Zimbabwe remains precarious.

"Though the food security situation has started to improve slightly, Zimbabwe continues to face a protracted emergency," Mr De Gucht said, noting that the money will be channelled through the commission's humanitarian aid department.

"Urban populations are particularly vulnerable due to lack of access to land. It is therefore crucial in this period that ongoing food security interventions are reinforced and consolidated in order to reach the populations in need."

On Wednesday, the UN said the world body had received less than half of the US$718 million required to fight hunger and other killer diseases at a time when "humanitarian threats such as food shortages" pose a serious threat.

"Although Zimbabwe is not facing armed conflict, humanitarian threats such as food shortages and outbreak of diseases such as cholera pose a significant challenge," UN humanitarian coordinator in Zimbabwe, Agostinho Zacarias, said at a ceremony in Harare to mark World Humanitarian Day.

"Sadly, only 44 percent of Zimbabwe's appeal of US$718 million had been raised by the end of July."

According to food monitoring and aid organisations, about three million people of the country's population are faced with hunger.

Zimbabwe has survived on food handouts since the turn of the millennium due to successive years of food shortages blamed on President Robert Mugabe’s ill planned agricultural reform programme since 2000.

President Mugabe supported landless war veterans without agricultural expertise to grab prime farming land from white commercial farmers – a development that saw agricultural production output plummeting unabated.

By Staff reporter and agencies