Starving raid food trucks in Zimbabwe

HARARE, Zimbabwe, Nov. 14 (UPI) -- Desperate Zimbabweans robbed 10 trucks carrying corn meal from South Africa immediately after they crossed the Beit Bridge, witnesses said.

"I have never seen anything like this in my life," a rancher who witnessed the scene told The Daily Telegraph. "I couldn't imagine in my wildest dreams I would ever see Zimbabweans so hungry. Piles of bags of maize meal were on both sides of the road and people from all over the district came streaming in and I saw some breaking open the bags and eating it raw."

The British newspaper reported Thursday that aid agencies say more than half the population will need food assistance this year -- about 5 million people. The World Food Program said this week that amounts it gives out are being cut because it does not have the funding it needs.

A businessman said that he had to go to Mozambique to buy maize to keep his employees from starving.

Zimbabwe, once a food exporter, is in an economic crisis that began eight years ago when President Robert Mugabe began taking over white-owned farms.