Drought spreads hunger across Southern Africa

Millions of people across Southern Africa are facing the worst hunger crisis due to a historic drought, the World Food Programme has said.

The devastation spread across five countries in the region, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe which have all declared a state of national disaster in the past months as the drought has destroyed crops and livestock, risking a full-scale humanitarian catastrophe

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Angola and Mozambique are also severely affected, the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) revealed in a briefing on Tuesday, warning that the crisis is expected to deepen until the next harvests in March or April 2025.

“A historic drought – the worst food crisis yet – has devastated more than 27 million lives across the region,” WFP spokesperson Tomson Phiri said. “Some 21 million children are malnourished,”

“Unless we receive additional resources, millions of people risk going through the worst lean season in decades without assistance,” WFP spokesperson Tomson Phiri told a Geneva press briefing.

The agency is planning to provide food and, in some cases, cash assistance to more than 6.5 million people in the seven hardest-hit countries to cover the period until the next harvest in March.

The WFP said, however, that it had only received about a fifth of the $369 million it needed.

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“Crops failed, livestock has perished and children are lucky to receive even one meal per day. The situation is dire, and the need for action has never been clearer,” said Phiri.

Tens of millions of people in the region rely on small-scale agriculture, irrigated by rain, for their food and to make money to buy provisions.

Aid agencies warned of a potential disaster late last year as the El Nino weather phenomenon led to below-average rainfall across the region. Its effects have been intensified by rising temperatures linked to climate change.

In July, a UN official said it was the worst drought to hit the region in a century. It has wiped out 70 percent of the harvest in Zambia and 80 percent in Zimbabwe, WFP’s acting regional director for Southern Africa, Lola Castro, said.

“October in Southern Africa marks the start of the lean season, and each month is expected to be worse than the previous one until harvests next year in March and April. Crops have failed, livestock have perished, and children are lucky to receive one meal per day.”

The lack of rain has also slashed hydropower capacity in the region, leading to long electricity cuts, while Zimbabwe and Namibia have announced wildlife culls to relieve pressure on resources.

Authorities in Namibia and Zimbabwe have resorted to killing wildlife, including elephants, to provide meat for hungry people.

Experts have warned that climate change-induced droughts and irregular rainfall patterns are negatively affecting the yield, development, taste, and harvest periods of various crops.