(Cape Town, South Africa) – Months of drought in southern Africa caused by the El Niño climate phenomenon have had a devastating impact on more than 27 million people and caused the worst hunger crisis in the region in decades, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Tuesday. . .
The World Food Program warned that it could become a “large-scale humanitarian catastrophe.”
Five countries – Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe – have declared national disasters due to drought and resulting hunger. The World Food Program estimates that about 21 million children in southern Africa are now suffering from malnutrition due to crop failure.
Tens of millions in the region depend on small-scale, rain-fed agriculture for their food and money to buy supplies. Aid agencies warned of potential disaster late last year, as the naturally occurring El Niño caused below-average rainfall across the region, while its impact was exacerbated by rising temperatures linked to climate change.
“This is the worst food crisis in decades,” said World Food Program spokesman Thompson Phiri. “In southern Africa, October marks the beginning of the lean season, and each month is expected to be worse than the previous until next year’s harvest in March and April. Crops have failed, livestock have perished, and children have been fortunate to have One meal a day.”
The five countries that have declared drought-related disasters have requested international aid, while Angola on Africa’s west coast and Mozambique on the east coast have been “severely affected,” Phiri said, showing the extent of the drought’s sweep across the continent. region.
“The situation is tragic,” Ferry said. He said that the World Food Program needs about $369 million to provide immediate assistance, but it has received only a fifth of this amount amid a shortage in donations. He added that the World Food Program began providing food assistance and other forms of vital support at the request of various governments in the region.
Phiri said the crisis in South Africa came at a time of “high global needs,” with humanitarian aid urgently needed in Gaza, Sudan and elsewhere.
Other aid agencies said the drought in southern Africa was particularly severe, with the US aid agency USAID saying in June that it was the severest drought in 100 years during the January-March agricultural season, wiping out large swathes of land. Crops and food. For millions.
El Niño, a climate phenomenon that warms parts of the central Pacific Ocean, has different effects on the weather in different parts of the world. The most recent El Niño formed in the middle of last year and ended in June. It has been blamed, along with human-caused climate change and general ocean warming, for 12 months of heatwaves and extreme weather.
In southern Africa, food prices have risen sharply in many drought-affected areas, leading to increased hardship. Drought also had other harmful effects.
Zambia has lost much of its electricity needs and has been plunged into blackouts for hours and sometimes days because it relies heavily on hydropower from the massive Kariba Dam. The water level in the dam is so low that it can hardly generate any power. Zimbabwe shares a dam and also suffers from power outages.
Authorities in Namibia and Zimbabwe have resorted to killing wild animals, including elephants, to provide meat for the hungry.
Scientists say that sub-Saharan Africa is one of the regions most vulnerable to climate change due to its heavy reliance on rain-fed agriculture and natural resources. The livelihoods of millions of Africans depend on climate, while poor countries are unable to finance climate change adaptation measures.
