Zimbabwe’s president has declared a state of disaster over a devastating El Nino drought sweeping across much of southern Africa.
FILE - James Tshuma, a farmer in Mangwe district in southwestern Zimbabwe, stands in the middle of his dried up crop field amid a drought, in Zimbabwe, Friday, March, 22, 2024. Zimbabwe declared a state of disaster Wednesday, April 3, 2024, over a devastating drought that's sweeping across much of southern Africa, with the countrys president saying it needs $2 billion for humanitarian assistance.
In Zimbabwe, the United Nations’ World Food Program has already rolled out a food assistance program targeting the 2.7 million people, nearly 20 percent of the country’s population, from January to March. Zimbabwe, once a regional agricultural powerhouse and grain exporter, has in recent years relied more and more on aid agencies to avert mass hunger due to extreme weather conditions such as heat waves and floods.
Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema declared the current drought a national disaster in February, saying that almost half of his country’s staple corn crop had been destroyed. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund, more than 6 million in Zambia, half of them children, have been affected by the drought.
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