A severe drought caused by the 2023/2024 El Niño event has impacted southern Africa, leading to significant food insecurity, health crises, and displacement. Approximately 23 million individuals are affected, with urgent humanitarian assistance needed for millions in several countries. The worsening situation underscores the necessity for enhanced response strategies amid concurrent public health challenges.
The El Niño phenomenon of 2023/2024 has precipitated widespread drought across southern Africa, particularly affecting Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Characterized by delayed rainfall, prolonged dry spells, and extreme temperatures, this event is recognized as the most severe El Niño occurrence in four decades. Consequently, affected communities are grappling with drastic food shortages, compromised water quality, disease outbreaks, and livestock losses. Comparative assessments of maize harvests reveal significant declines across the region, falling well below the five-year averages established prior to the El Niño event. Current estimates indicate that nearly 23 million individuals face heightened food insecurity, with Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique bearing the brunt of this crisis. The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) prognosticates that approximately 14 to 14.9 million people will require urgent humanitarian assistance during the impending lean season, spanning from October to December 2024. Indeed, national drought emergencies have been declared in six countries, including Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, with Angola and Mozambique also experiencing significant hardship, affecting roughly 1.8 million people in Angola and 3.3 million in Mozambique who are categorized as food insecure. The ramifications of this drought extend to the youth, with over two million children anticipated to experience acute malnutrition in 2024, including more than 500,000 cases of severe wasting. In addition to these dire food security challenges, the drought has precipitated the displacement of thousands, creation of food shortages, and exacerbated water scarcity, further threatening agricultural productivity. The region is concurrently facing a troubling cholera epidemic, recognized as one of the gravest in recent decades. Although the situation has somewhat stabilized, the ongoing water shortages are severely undermining sanitation and hygiene efforts, particularly in Malawi and Mozambique, where the risk of cholera resurgences persists. Additionally, the drought may heighten vulnerabilities concerning the transmission of HIV and AIDS, mental health conditions, and incidents of gender-based violence, indicating a pressing need for refined emergency response strategies. The interplay of El Niño’s effects, juxtaposed with cholera incidents, sociopolitical conflicts, and climate change, has severely burdened regional health systems, adversely affecting access to fundamental sexual and reproductive health services. In light of these multifaceted challenges stemming from catastrophes related to climate change, over one million individuals have faced internal displacement predominantly from Malawi, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe.
The ongoing drought in southern Africa is closely linked to the 2023/2024 El Niño phenomenon, which has resulted in extreme climatic conditions detrimental to agricultural yields and public health. In recent decades, southern Africa has periodically encountered droughts, but the current situation is exacerbated by a combination of factors including prior crop failures, microeconomic instability, and the historic impact of El Niño, resulting in greater vulnerabilities to food insecurity and health crises. The region has also been grappling with cholera outbreaks, compounding the public health challenges faced.
The drought inflicted by the extreme El Niño event has engendered a severe food security crisis across southern Africa, affecting millions and stressing health and sanitation systems. The intricate relationship between environmental elements, public health risks, and socio-economic impacts highlights the pressing need for comprehensive disaster preparedness and response mechanisms to address the urgent humanitarian needs of affected communities.
Original Source: reliefweb.int
