On Wednesday, the President of Zimbabwe declared a state of national disaster, as the southern African country suffers from a severe drought linked to the El Niño weather phenomenon, which has brought back the specter of hunger for millions of people.
• Read also: 'Families must not go to waste': El Niño brings hunger back to Zimbabwe
• Read also: The El Niño phenomenon is expected to exacerbate food insecurity in southern Africa
“I declare a national state of disaster due to drought related to the El Niño phenomenon,” Emmerson Mnangagwa said at a press conference. This measure essentially allows the release of extraordinary resources to deal with the crisis.
“No Zimbabwean should succumb to hunger,” the President continued. The head of state warned that more than 2.7 million people will lack food due to lack of rain, with cereal crops expected to feed just over half the population.
Zimbabwe is the third country in southern Africa to declare a state of natural disaster after Malawi and Zambia, which are linked to drought.
In early March, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) warned that generally dry weather conditions in early 2024 in southern Africa linked to the El Niño weather phenomenon “are expected to exacerbate food insecurity.”
The FAO confirmed that the main growing regions of Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe “received only 80% of average rainfall between mid-November 2023 and February 2024”, which is the summer period in the Southern Hemisphere.
