The incident comes just two months after UN humanitarian officials declared Zimbabwe a hunger hotspot. Acute food insecurity likely to worsen.
The storm destroyed more than half of the country’s harvest.leave about 7.6 million people at risk of acute hunger.
El Niño is a regular and natural weather phenomenon that affects air temperatures around the ocean and coastal areas. The climate crisis in recent years has led to more frequent and intense weather patterns.
Officials from the United Nations and the World Food Programme (World food program) recently visited Zimbabwe to assess the impact of drought on the country and call for more international support for the humanitarian response.
‘State of national disaster’
In April, the Zimbabwean local government declared that the country was in a state of national disaster.
Government figures show that 57 percent of people in “rural” areas of the country will be food insecure between January and March 2025 – the peak of hunger there.
Other UN reports indicate that people will need to rely on “alternative sources of income, social assistance and humanitarian assistance” to cope with the season.
It was further reported that “Humanitarian assistance needs will remain high in many areas of the country until the 2025 harvest. due to poor purchasing power due to limited income opportunities and high food prices.”
The Impact of El Niño
Droughts caused by El Niño are said to have put pressure on Zimbabwe’s economy, leaving more than a fifth of children out of school and causing water shortages across the country.
The United Nations and a number of partners are working with the Government of Zimbabwe to provide aid to the people.
However, these groups need more money, as a $429 million emergency appeal launched in May to support more than 3 million people is only about 11 percent funded.
The El Niño drought has also affected other southern African countries including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Madagascar, Malawi and many others. Each of these countries is in dire need of humanitarian intervention as food insecurity levels have increased significantly due to the drought.
