As drought spreads its tentacles across eastern Australia, forcing destocking of many rural areas and cuts to planting of winter cereal crops, spare a thought for southern Africa, where an el Niño-induced drought, coupled with AIDS and the disastrous policies of the Mugabe Government in Zimbabwe, may cause mass starvation late this year, and early in 2003.Like most of Australia, southern Africa is subject to periodic droughts. Historical records show that southern Africa experiences …
