Nearly 20 million people in southern Africa face hunger as the region grapples with a relentless drought, worsened by the El Niño weather phenomenon and exacerbated by climate change. Countries across the arid belt, including Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Botswana, Angola, Mozambique, and Madagascar, find their populations entrapped in a cycle of extreme weather that has left fields barren and food supplies dwindling.
In the Mangwe district of southwestern Zimbabwe, the crisis manifests in poignant scenes of desperation. Zanyiwe Ncube, a 39-year-old mother, echoed the plight of many as she attended a food distribution site, painstakingly ensuring not a drop of her rationed cooking oil was lost. “I don’t want to lose a single drop,” she said. This, however, marked the last visit from aid workers. Ncube, and others like her, who would typically be harvesting their crops, are confronted with scorched lands yielding not “a single grain.”
The World Food Programme (WFP) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAid) have rolled out aid programs, targeting portions of the 2.7 million rural Zimbabweans threatened by starvation. However, with national disasters declared in Zambia and Malawi, and Zimbabwe on the brink, the magnitude of the crisis stretches beyond current relief efforts. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) highlights the “overlapping crises” of weather extremes in the region, with both storm floods and droughts occurring within the past year.
“Distressingly, extreme weather is expected to be the norm in eastern and southern Africa in the years to come,” said Eva Kadilli, Unicef’s regional director, portending a grim future for the region’s most vulnerable, particularly its children.Alarmingly, nearly half of Malawi’s population and 30% of Zambia’s are affected, with millions more across the affected nations.
El Niño’s below-average rainfall has been a catalyst for the current conditions, but human-induced climate change plays a significant role in the increasing frequency and severity of such extreme weather patterns. In more arid regions like Mangwe, even drought-resistant crops such as sorghum and pearl millet have failed.
Francesca Erdelmann, the WFP’s country director for Zimbabwe, underscored the severity of the situation,said last year’s harvest was bad, but this season is even worse. “This is not a normal circumstance,” she said. With hopes for the upcoming harvests diminishing, communities are left vulnerable, resorting to wild fruits or, as noted by 77-year-old traditional leader Joseph Nleya, illegal crossings into neighboring countries in a desperate search for sustenance.
Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema has said that 1 million of the 2.2 million hectares of his country’s staple corn crop have been destroyed. Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera seeks $200 million in humanitarian aid. The WFP, fearing the inevitable rise in the number needing assistance after crop assessments, has acknowledged the vast number of people who may not receive aid, given the limited resources and global reductions in humanitarian funding.
The stark reality is that millions in the region will not be able to feed themselves into 2025. Despite an $11 million grant from USAid, it is evident that the 20 million predicted to need food relief in the coming months will face a long and arduous road ahead.
Relevant articles:
– Nearly 20 million facing hunger due to drought in southern Africa
– Drought exposes at least 20 million to hunger in southern Africa, The Times of India, Sun, 31 Mar 2024 11:07:00 GMT
– In a cycle of extreme weather, drought in southern Africa leaves some 20 million facing hunger, Firstpost, Sun, 31 Mar 2024 07:42:03 GMT
– WFP: food aid for nearly 2.7 million Zimbabweans, Africanews English, Thu, 18 Jan 2024 08:00:00 GMT