Weather: Drought in Africa: Namibia declares state of emergency

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Weather
Drought in Africa: Namibia declares state of emergency

A woman waits for food aid in Mangwe district in southwest Zimbabwe in March 2023. Photo

© Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi/AP/dpa

There is no rain in many countries in southern Africa. Now Namibia is also sounding the alarm.

Due to persistent drought in Namibia’s President Nangolo Mbumba declared a state of emergency on Monday. A lack of rain has led to a nationwide drought disaster, Mbumba announced in an official gazette signed by him. Namibia thus joins numerous other countries in southern Africa that have declared disasters or states of emergency in recent weeks due to the El Niño climate phenomenon. These include Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi.

Mozambique, Botswana and Angola are also suffering from an unusually long dry period caused by El Niño – an irregular weather phenomenon in the equatorial Pacific. According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), El Niño is one of the five strongest recorded over several decades.

According to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), the region experienced the “driest February in 40 years”. According to the WFP, almost five million people in the worst affected countries are dependent on food aid. The livelihood of around 70 percent of the population in southern Africa is therefore agriculture. It is now autumn in the southern hemisphere.

dpa

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