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A severe drought in Southern Africa is affecting the lives of over 270,000 children across the six hardest-hit nations, according to a statement by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).
The statement indicated that these children are anticipated to experience life-threatening severe acute malnutrition in 2024.
Lesotho has declared a state of national food disaster due to El Nino-induced weather conditions that have resulted in extremely low rainfall. This follows similar declarations from Botswana, Malawi, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Between February and April 2024, Zambia, Malawi and Zimbabwe in southern Africa declared drought as a national disaster.
In Malawi, the El Nino-driven weather patterns, including insufficient rainfall, floods and extended droughts, have caused significant crop destruction and disrupted food production in 23 out of the country's 28 districts, affecting at least nine million households.
In Zambia, the El Nino-driven drought has affected 86 of the country's 117 districts, impacting over 9.8 million people.
In Zimbabwe, the drought caused by El Nino has led to more than 80 per cent of the country receiving below-average rainfall and damaged 12 per cent of the planted corn farmland.
According to the UN agency, 7.4 million children in Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe live in child food poverty, with more than two million surviving on extremely poor diets.
Children in southern Africa who are vulnerable face severe consequences from climate shocks. These events significantly reduce the amount, variety and quality of food available; adversely affect child care; and interrupt access to clean and safe water, putting children at risk of deadly diseases such as diarrhoea.
The humanitarian needs children are facing due to El Nino are extremely concerning. Increasing food insecurity and malnutrition, challenges in accessing safe water and sanitation, as well as risks to disease outbreaks such as cholera are a serious threat. Thousands of children are on the brink of being irreversibly impacted in their health and growth because of the climate-related crisis and this warning should not go unheard by the international community.
Etleva Kadilli, UNICEF Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa
In the coming months, as the prolonged impacts of El Nino become evident, leading to crop failures and a rise in cases of severe acute malnutrition, which worsen existing humanitarian crises, UNICEF urged all partners to enhance the region's response to this rapidly developing emergency.
“Investment and innovation in building family and societal resilience are vital. Frameworks that stay fit for future purpose, including diverse food systems, clean water, sanitation services, climate-informed education, and climate-responsive health care, must be prioritized, alongside the safeguarding of key services and systems for children to ensure quality and uninterrupted access,” the organisation wrote in the statement.
Besides investing in resilience, UNICEF called for a rapid expansion and intensification of lifesaving programs throughout the region to mitigate the risk of more children suffering from malnutrition.