MOZAMBIQUE: Study attributes AIDS to food insecurity

Mozambique's Food and Nutritional Security Technical Secretariat (SETSAN) says the country could face severe food insecurity as a result of HIV/AIDS.

In a report release on Monday in the capital Maputo, at a symposium on the relation between hunger and absolute poverty, SETSAN warned that the agricultural sector might lose 20 percent of its workforce to AIDS-related illnesses by 2010.

According to the local news agency, AIM, the secretariat urged that the impact of AIDS on agriculture receive "special attention", taking into account that the agricultural sector employed at least 95 percent of the country's rural workforce.

The report estimated that 430,000 people in central and southern Mozambique were currently affected by drought, while an additional 160,000 were set to need food assistance over the next two months.

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[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]