A historic drought in southern Africa has put access to food at risk for 26 million people, the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) has warned, calling for urgent funding.

The crisis, aggravated by the 2023-2024 El Niño weather phenomenon, is expected to worsen until at least the next harvest, scheduled for March or April 2025.

"We currently have around 26 million people in acute food insecurity in the region and this is due to the El Niño induced drought," said Eric Perdison, WFP's regional director for Southern Africa, in a WFP publication. AFPHe added that the seven countries most affected were Angola, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

According to the WFP, these countries need an additional 300 million dollars to prevent access to sufficient, nutritious and affordable food from worsening further, putting widespread hunger at risk.

Faced with the situation, five countries - Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe - have declared a national state of emergency in recent months, as the drought has destroyed many crops and livestock.

In many places, farmers who would normally be planting seeds at this time of year were unable to do so.

"If you travel around the country, you'll see almost all the camps empty. The situation is really terrible," said WFP's country director in Mozambique, Antonella D'Aprile.

"Communities have very little or almost nothing to eat," he said, adding that "thousands of families are literally surviving on just one meal" a day. Help "cannot wait", D'Aprile warned. "The time to support is really now."

In neighboring Malawi, the WFP said it had to import food to provide assistance due to shortages. "Almost half of the maize crops were damaged by the El Niño drought earlier this year," said the group's representative in the country, Paul Turnbull.

Families were facing difficult choices, he said: "skipping meals; adults not eating so that their children can eat; withdrawing children from school; and selling everything of value they have."

Despite Zambia being "known as the food basket of southern Africa", the country "is on the brink of a hunger crisis", said WFP country director Cissy Kabasuuga.

In Namibia, an upper-middle-income country, the situation was also dire. "All 14 regions have been affected by drought, some of which have very worrying levels (of food insecurity) and this is a very worrying situation for Namibia," said Tiwonge Machiwenyika, from the WFP.

The aid group's representative in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) also joined the appeal for assistance.

According to Peter Musoko, WFP representative in the DRC, the country has more than 25 million people facing emergency levels of food insecurity, with "no relief in sight".

All this "due to a cocktail" of conflicts, climatic extremes and health crises, including outbreaks of smallpox, cholera and measles, Musoko added.

As a result of these multiple issues, the WFP said it has also seen an increase in sexual and gender-based violence in the country and the opening of houses of prostitution around the camps hosting displaced people.

US President Joe Biden announced on Tuesday, during a trip to the region, a humanitarian aid package of one billion dollars for 31 African countries, including those affected by drought.

 

(Photo DR)