WINDHOEK, June 7 (Xinhua) -- About 23.3 million people from six Southern African Development Community (SADC) member states are in a crisis food security situation, deputy secretary of regional integration at SADC secretariat Thembinkosi Mhlongo said Friday.
He was speaking at the joint meeting of SADC ministers responsible for agriculture and food security, fisheries and aquaculture in Windhoek.
"Available data for 2018/19 on the regional food security situation in SADC is not encouraging," he said.
He said that 43.7 million people from eight SADC member states are in stressed food security situation.
"This is according to the integrated food security phase classification which measures using a scale of phase 1 to 5, where phase 5 represents catastrophe or famine and 4 represents emergency situation, 3 represents crisis and 2 represents stress," he said.
