Disease choking off supply of what Africa needs most: Food

A street trader sells cabbages in Kibera slums in Nairobi. [AP]

In a pre-dawn raid in food-starved Zimbabwe, police enforcing a coronavirus lockdown confiscated and destroyed three tonnes of fresh fruit and vegetables by setting fire to it. Wielding batons, they scattered a group of rural farmers who had traveled overnight, breaking restrictions on movement to bring the precious produce to one of the country’s busiest markets.

The food burned as farmers went home empty-handed, a stupefying moment for a country and a continent where food is in critically short supply. It was an extreme example of how lockdowns to slow the spread of the virus may be choking Africa’s already-vulnerable food supply.