A 15-year-old boy from Sivalo area outside Bulawayo in Zimbabwe choked to death on the nut of a wild fruit as an acute food crisis takes its toll on thousands of families in the local villages, Mirror has established.

Several local villagers are now reportedly surviving on tree leaves, wild roots and fruits as starvation and continued economic problems continue to rock the troubled neighbouring country.

According to a relative of the boy and a local community leader, the victim, Sifiso Dube, died last week and was buried on Saturday, 25 October, at his home in the Sivalo area of the Midlands province,

Local headman, Collin Mantiya cofirmed to Mirror the accidental death of Dube, and said there had been several other mishaps in the village in which people fell sick after mistakenly eating poisonous wild fruit.

"Villagers are eating dangerous wild fruits, tree leaves and roots because of food shortages. The 15-year-old boy died after he choked on a nut of umkhuna, while numerous villagers have reported becoming sick after eating some unknown wild fruits," said Mantiya.

Umkhuna is a yellowish-brown fruit, indigenous to Zimbabwe. It has since become a staple food for many families as the country’s hunger crisis heads towards an anticipated peak period – January 2009 – when an estimated 5.1 million people or about 45 percent of the country’s 12 million population will have no food.

Once a regional breadbasket, Zimbabwe is in the grip of severe food shortages and the government cites poor weather and sanctions, saying they have hampered the importation of fertilizers, seed, and other farming inputs.