By PERPETUAL SICHIKWENKWE –

DEPUTY Minister in the Office of the Vice-President Stephen Kampyongo says the Government will next month start identifying beneficiaries of relief food in 31 districts that are facing hunger.
Mr Kampyongo said in Mongu yesterday that the identification process was aimed at ensuring that relief food reached the intended targets.
The Zambia Vulnerability Assessment Committee (ZVAC) conducted an indepth vulnerability and needs assessment in six provinces which has revealed that more than 53,000 metric tonnes of relief food is needed to avert hunger.
Mr Kampyongo said when he addressed district commissioners in Mongu in Western Province yesterday, that 798,948 people in 31 districts have been targeted for relief food.
The assessment revealed that relief food would be needed for a period of eight months starting from next month because of the prolonged dry spell in the last rainy season.
It was for this reason that a list for beneficiaries listing exercise will be conducted by the ZVAC in corroboration with district disaster management committees and community welfare assistant committees to enhance transparency.
The identification exercise will be generated at ward level before the commencement of the distribution programme?.
He said the exercise would help the Government and other stakeholders involved to ensure that food was timely delivered to right beneficiaries in correct quantities.
Mr Kampyongo urged the district commissioners against politicising the distribution of relief food because it was meant for everyone who was affected by hunger regardless of political affiliation.
Provincial Permanent Secretary Mwangala Liomba commended the Government for adding nine more districts to the province which he said would accelerate development and create employment.
DMMU coordinator Patrick Kangwa, who is also Permanent Secretary in the Office of the Vice-President, said no one would die from hunger and urged the people to support the efforts of the Government in the distribution exercise.