climate
Drought in southern Africa threatens 24 million people
A farmer stands in his dry field in southwest Zimbabwe. photo
© Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi/AP/dpa
The worst drought in 100 years: millions of people in southern Africa are affected by hunger and water shortages. Three countries have already declared a state of disaster.
The United Nations warns of the effects of the worst drought in over 100 years in the south Africa. Due to the El Niño climate phenomenon, the region experienced its lowest rainfall in 40 years, according to the UN emergency agency OCHA. The temperatures between the end of January and the beginning of March were on average five degrees higher than in previous years. According to OCHA, more than 24 million people in southern Africa are affected by hunger, malnutrition and water shortages due to extreme weather conditions.
In Zimbabwe, the unusual heat has “literally withered everything,” said Regina Feint, the deputy country director of Welthungerhilfe in Zimbabwe, on Tuesday. The harvest forecast is “sobering to catastrophic”. There are hardly any yields in the fields and the cattle will soon no longer have any grass to eat, while prices for basic foodstuffs in the cities are skyrocketing, says Honigt.
According to the aid organization Care, more than 9,000 cattle have died due to the drought in Zambia alone since October. According to the UN World Food Program (WFP), around 70 percent of the population in southern Africa relies on agriculture as a source of livelihood.
Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe have already declared national states of disaster due to the drought. Large parts of Angola, Botswana, Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia and South Africa are also affected. At the same time, El Niño has caused heavy rain and flooding in Madagascar, Mozambique, Malawi and Zambia. Thousands fled. According to the UN, the floods led to a cholera outbreak.
“This is not just a climate shock, but a humanitarian crisis that requires immediate action,” said Chikwe Mbweeda, Care’s country director in Zambia. The extent of food insecurity in the region is already enormous, said Mbweeda. In Malawi alone, one of the poorest countries in the region, almost a quarter of the population (around 4.4 million people) already suffers from severe food insecurity.
According to the World Weather Organization (WMO), the current El Niño – a weather phenomenon that occurs at irregular intervals in the equatorial Pacific – is one of the five strongest in recent decades. It is now autumn in the southern hemisphere.