[16][17], In May 2019, Namibia declared a state of emergency in response to the drought,[18] and extended it by additional 6 months in October 2019. Displacement, malnutrition and drought-related diseases are all on the rise, and famine could be declared in parts of the country. [19], The drought was re-declared as national emergency in South Africa 4 March 2020. Consecutive El Nino-related droughts has left half the rural population in need of food aid until the end of the lean season in March. Four million people could be in need of aid by July if the long rains fail. In the worst cases, where conflict has made farming impossible and reduced humanitarian access, there will be famine.

[20] 17 March 2020 the black market of stolen water was reported in Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality amidst emergency-related corruption concerns.[21].

Sudan experiences unpredictable rainfall and desertification. Trees have the ability to send their roots deep down into the earth, thus drawing up water into their leaves. Top 10 Least Developed Countries In Africa, Top 10 Most Influential Countries In Africa. A new drought means 2017 could be just as dire, throwing an additional 5.7 million people into crisis. Ethiopia drought

[11], In spring 2018, an El Niño event disrupted Southern Africa's annual rainfall. The 2015 El Niño event was particularly severe and continued to be felt in the east of the country in 2016. The El Niño-driven crisis has increased the malnutrition rates of rural children, and driven up food prices for urban residents. In August 2018 the Southern African Development Community advised farmers to avoid selling some of their stockpiled food from the previous season,[10] and in September 2018 the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) issued a warning to Southern African countries about the formation of conditions for a drought. Food prices are high and government services are limited. Climate change causes drought all over the world, not just in Africa. El Ninos typically occur within 4-year cycles, although they have also been noted to occur within 3 to 7 years cycles as well.

The following is a list of 17 countries struggling to come to terms with the impact of two consecutive years of drought, which has left more than 38 million people at risk this year.

The southern regions of Cunene, Huila and Namibe have been hard hit. In times of conflict, the welfare of the citizens is often relegated to the background with an increase in the destruction of the environment. Also due to overpopulation, not enough land is available for farming. Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC) – DG ECHO Daily Map | 29/01/2019. The worsening drought has led to widespread water and pasture shortages for livestock.

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[2] As of September 2020, the drought is classified as a level 2 Red-Class event. The increasing rate of evaporation from the soil and vegetation leads to drought in Africa. Of these, nearly three million need urgent life-saving aid. Livestock deaths and fire sales have slashed the asset wealth of pastoralists, and cumulative bad harvests will make recovery all the harder for small-scale farmers. The northern Sahel and East Africa were drier than normal throughout the 2009 rainy season. As of mid-August 2019, the drought is classified as a level 2 Red-Class event by the Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System. Some effects of diverting lakes can be drought. UNICEF plans to reach 450,000 children this year with nutritional support.
In 2016, food prices were up 172 percent above the five-year average. When the moisture-laden air is no longer available, that means there will be very little, or no rainfall at all. [11] Patrick Kormawa, the Sub-Regional Coordinator for FAO in Southern Africa, predicted a 40 percent chance the region would be impacted by an El Niño event in Fall 2018. As it happened in Namibia a few years ago the lack of rainfall caused the death of much of the wildlife, as the drought killed the grasses, it greatly depleted the grazing animals that depend on it for survival. Maize, cassava and rice production dropped by as much as 95 percent in the south of the country last year. A weekly read to keep you in the loop on humanitarian issues. But food insecurity – affecting a quarter of the population – is also driven by the country’s economic crisis as a result of ongoing political violence. The drought is a natural phenomenon, not caused by any form of human activity. Djibouti is one of the world’s most arid countries. Drought is a condition described as a lack of rainfall over an extended period of time.

Basic food prices remain high at the peak of the lean season. Cause of the Drought From November to March, Africa experiences its wet season. They typically include high air pressure in the western Pacific and low air pressure in the eastern pacific. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Your email address will not be published.
For in-depth reporting on how climate change is affecting farmers and food security in several African countries, see this special IRIN project. [9] As of the start of the 2018-19 ongoing El Niño-induced drought, some parts of Southern Africa had not yet recovered from the effects of the earlier drought. This can cause droughts in two ways: A: when the trees are cut, they can no longer contribute to the moisture in the air by transpiration.

Dineo, which hit coastal Inhambane Province, affected nearly 551,000 people and destroyed 27,000 hectares of crops.

Drought Threatens Millions in Southern Africa Diminished rainfall, combined with soaring temperatures, has jeopardized the food security and energy supplies of millions of people in the region. Climate change can be traced down to human activity; deforestation, global warming, our dependency on fossil fuels, and many other things have been attributed to contributing to climate change. Drought is fast becoming a natural phenomenon in parts of East and South Africa. Two consecutive seasons of poor rains have hit production across much of the country. However, if the usual rains are disrupted by a weather anomaly, planting is delayed until November or early December, resulting in a longer "lean" season before crops can be harvested. There are a number of strategies governments could adopt to address the situation: from improving the tradability of food, to coordinated climate change adaptation strategies, to meeting the African Union target of allocating 15 percent of budget spending to agriculture.

Rwanda did not escape last year’s drought.