Mozambique launched a $21 million aid appeal on Friday to feed thousands of people facing hunger because they are too poor to purchase their own food.
The government's top food aid official told Reuters 802,000 people, or 4.4 percent of the southern African country's population, in south and central Mozambique needed food aid to stay alive before the next harvest in March next year.
The Treasury allocated $3 million for the purchase of food for the relief effort in June but another $21 million was required to meet demand, Marcela Libombo, national co-ordinator for food and nutrition security, said.
"We need immediate intervention with food aid. We also need assistance to help farmers in the planting season starting in October through the supply of seed and drought-resistant crops," she said, but added there were no hunger-linked deaths reported.