Zimbabwe declared a state of disaster on Wednesday due to a terrible drought that is sweeping across much of southern Africa, with the president announcing that the country requires $2 billion in humanitarian help.
The statement was widely expected following similar steps in neighboring Zambia and Malawi, where drought caused by the El Nino weather phenomenon has burnt crops, leaving millions of people in need of food assistance.
In an address pleading for international aid, President Emmerson Mnangagwa stated that the El Nino-induced drought had resulted in below-average rainfall for almost 80% of the country. He stated that the country’s number one goal is “securing food for all Zimbabweans.” “No Zimbabwean must succumb to or die of hunger.”
He appealed to United Nations agencies, local businesses and faith organizations to contribute towards humanitarian assistance.
El Nino, a naturally occurring climatic phenomenon that warms parts of the Pacific Ocean every two to seven years, has varied effects on the world’s weather.
In Zimbabwe, the United Nations’ World Food Program has already rolled out a food assistance program targeting the 2.7 million people, nearly 20 percent of the country’s population, from January to March.
Over 60% of Zimbabwe’s 15 million people live in rural areas, growing the food they eat, and sometimes small surpluses that can be sold to cover expenses such as school fees.
Zimbabwe, once a regional agricultural powerhouse and grain exporter, has in recent years relied more and more on aid agencies to avert mass hunger due to extreme weather conditions such as heat waves and floods.
Mnangagwa’s declaration will open the way for aid agencies to mobilize international support for more aid, but many people may still fail to get assistance, which is likely to be targeted to the most vulnerable populations due to limited resources amid a global hunger crisis and a cut in humanitarian funding.
Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema declared the current drought a national disaster in February, saying that almost half of his country’s staple corn crop had been destroyed. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund, more than 6 million in Zambia, half of them children, have been affected by the drought.
The United States Agency for International Development, the U.S. government’s foreign aid agency, has estimated through its Famine Early Warning Systems Network that 20 million people in southern Africa needed food relief between January and March.
These needs could extend into early 2025 for many people in areas of highest concern such as Zimbabwe, southern Malawi, parts of Mozambique and southern Madagascar due to El Nino, USAID said.
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