KARONGA: Bishop Martin Mtumbuka of Roman Catholic Church in the Diocese of Karonga which carters three districts including Chitipa and Rumphi in the northern part of Malawi has temporarily banned some of the ministerial services that involves fund raising in his area due to the hunger situation that is biting the country.

Mtumbuka made the remarks on Saturday during the meeting in Karonga district which was aimed at reviewing some of it strategic plan.

Speaking during the meeting which was attended by all senior leaders of the Diocese, Mtumbuka said that fund raising activities such as paper Sunday and festivals as well as Church celebrations should momentarily stop until the harvest.

According to him, this will help the followers to use the intended money to feed their families who are currently struggling to source their food.

“First of all I have to thank all the congregations as well as leaders of Karonga Diocese for being loyalty to church activities especially those aim at sourcing fund. This has made most of our planned projects to be successful and I therefore don’t take it for granted,” applauded Mtubuka.

“However, as a leader of the Diocese, I have thought it wisely to stop such fundraising for temporarily until people harvest their crops. This is because of the hunger situation that has hit the country especially in within this period,” ordered Mtumbuka.

Adding that “this will help them to feed their families as they will use the money buy food on top of that I don’t see the reason for the church to be having celebrations when its members are starving.”

Despite having different hunger symptoms, the government of Malawi is still insisting that the country has enough maize and that no one will die of it.

Recently maize buyers at Karonga main ADMARC depot fought with the law enforcers accusing them of helping the vendors in accessing their maize using their privilege.