Diplomat: Not enough food in Zimbabwe

HARARE, Zimbabwe, Aug. 13 (UPI) -- Following a three-day visit to Zimbabwe, a U.S. diplomat said there doesn't seem to be enough food and the government is making the crisis worse.

Tony Hall, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations food agencies, said food distribution is being hampered by delays in getting permission, reported the BBC Saturday.

Food has been donated to the drought-stricken Zimbabwe, Malawi, Lesotho, Swaziland and Zambia -- but the famine has been so severe people are close to death or dying.

The United States is donating some 75,000 tons of food relief to the region.

Hall said he was kept from visiting some of the Zimbabweans left homeless by recent government urban demolitions because he had been told off the record that people in the camp were dying, the BBC said.