No one will die of hunger.......

Government has assured councils in the country that it will make sure that all beneficiaries under the Lean Season Food Response Programme are reached out to as planned in the response plan.

Speaking on Thursday (20th February, 2025) in Monkey-Bay Mangochi during one of his monitoring visits under the lean season response activity, Commissioner for Disaster Management Affairs, Charles Kalemba said he was impressed with progress of the exercise as the department and Mangochi council continues to transport maize to the affected communities through vessels owned by the department of Fisheries.

Kalemba said all hard to reach areas in the districts of Mangochi, Rumphi and Nkhata Bay are being given the necessary attention so that the response program is undertaken as planned.

"I am so impressed with the progress and I have been assured that the Ndunduma vessel will ferry all 700 tonnes it requires to transport to Makanjira," he said.

Ndunduma vessel transports 500 bags per trip and has so far ferried 5000 bags.

Monkey-Bay Principal Fisheries Officer, Salim M'balaka said the vessel takes about four hours from Monkey Bay to Makanjira and normally leaves around 1 O'clock in the morning.

He said Ndunduma vessel is one of the reliable ships the department has and was so hopeful that it will carry out the exercise as planned and allocated.

According to the Malawi Vulnerability Assessment (MVAC) Committee report, Makanjira has about 13 thousand affected people and have all been targeted to benefit under the lean season response programme.