Extreme weather events blamed on the El Nino weather phenomenon are causing a surge in hunger in several countries, including Zambia and Afghanistan, the United Nations World Food Programme said on Wednesday, calling on donors to provide badly needed aid.
El Niño is a natural, temporary, and occasional warming of parts of the Pacific Ocean that changes global weather patterns. Research shows that El Niño could become even stronger as the world warms.
Strong El Niño could lead to fewer Atlantic hurricanes, say experts
Tens of millions of people in southern Africa depend on the weather to grow and feed themselves.
The UN WFP warned in a statement that southern Africa is the “epicenter of the crisis” after repeated floods and droughts have hit the region over the past three years. The UN food agency said Malawi, Zimbabwe and Zambia are the three hardest-hit countries, with drought this season destroying 40-80 percent of the staple maize crop, affecting millions of people.
A man swims from a submerged church site after heavy rains caused the Tana River to overflow, in Mororo, on the border of Tana and Garissa counties in northeastern Kenya, Sunday, April 28, 2024. Heavy rains battering parts of Kenya have killed dozens of people and forced tens of thousands to evacuate, according to the United Nations. (AP Photo/Andrew Cusk)
WFP said that Secretary-General Cindy McCain visited Zambia and saw first-hand that “severe drought has wiped out crops in a region where 70% of the population depends on agriculture”. did.
“We can’t ask millions of people to wait a year from now until the next harvest to put food on the table,” McCain said in a statement. “These families need our support now, while we help them build a more resilient future.”
The WFP said its teams have begun their response but that US$409 million is needed over six months to reach 4.8 million people in Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The agency said in a separate statement that other countries, including Congo and Afghanistan, are facing similar problems, with changing weather conditions destroying crops, killing livestock, displacing people and causing a spike in hunger. He said that
This comes at a time when the agency’s aid capacity is already strained by the hunger crises caused by conflicts in Gaza and Sudan.
WFP’s appeal for aid comes days after the regional Southern African Development Community called for support following a special virtual meeting of leaders and government officials to discuss the impact of the extreme weather.
South African countries said in a joint statement that $5.5 billion is needed to support more than 61 million people in the region.
The regional coalition said droughts and floods caused by El Niño had “multifaceted and cascading effects across multiple sectors”, adding that El Niño could lead to large-scale and deadly outbreaks of deadly waterborne cholera. He pointed out that it caused other problems, including contributing to the outbreak. disease. Countries that rely on hydropower, such as Zambia, are struggling to produce enough electricity due to the drought.
In tandem with the El Niño phenomenon, southern Africa has recently experienced a series of tropical cyclones that scientists say are likely to be stronger and wetter as a result of human-induced climate change and global warming.
The African continent is expected to be the least affected by climate change but the hardest hit, and poorer countries are generally ill-equipped to deal with its effects.
Even before the floods and drought, food insecurity and malnutrition were already at critical levels in Malawi, Zimbabwe and Zambia, and humanitarian assistance was hampered by a lack of funding, WFP said.
All three countries have declared this year’s drought a national disaster, with others making similarly grim assessments.
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A United Nations humanitarian agency said this month that about half of Zimbabwe’s population of 15 million people needed “life-saving and life-saving” assistance because of drought.
The non-profit organization Action Against Hunger last week warned that a “hunger crisis could be imminent” in Kenya, an East African country where more than 250,000 people have been displaced by devastating floods.
