Harare: A combination of government dysfunction, economic meltdown, droughts and a calamitous cyclone in March have hurtled Zimbabwe towards a hunger disaster that has become the most severe in southern Africa and among the most alarming in the world.

While food is not necessarily scarce yet, it is becoming unaffordable for all but the privileged few.

"I cannot stress enough the urgency of the situation in Zimbabwe," Hilal Elver, an independent United Nations human rights expert on food security, said after a 10-day visit in November. Sixty per cent of the country's 14 million people, Elver said, are "food-insecure, living in a household that is unable to obtain enough food to meet basic needs."

Fuel shortages have plagued Zimbabwe – now residents are being priced out of the food market. Credit:AP

Hunger in Africa is a pervasive problem, but in Zimbabwe, once known as the continent's breadbasket, it has been compounded by dysfunction that has left the country in its most serious economic crisis in a decade. The annual inflation rate, which the International Monetary Fund has called the world's highest, is 300 per cent.