Millions of Christians in Zimbabwe are facing starvation after the government declared a state of disaster in the drought-stricken country where 84% of its 15 million people are Christians and 60% of them live off the land, growing the food they eat and selling what’s left. Now the crops have dried up.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa said the country needed more than A$3 billion in humanitarian aid to feed the millions facing hunger. Surrounding southern African nations like Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Madagascar, Botswana and Angola are also suffering from a devastating drought induced by the El Niño global weather pattern that brings high temperatures and below-average rainfall to Southern Africa from November to April, significantly impacting on agriculture and leading to water scarcity, food shortages, and disease outbreaks.
Most countries in the region have received their lowest rainfall for the late January/February timeframe in at least 40 years. The Zambezi River Authority which owns and manages the giant Lake Kariba along the Zimbabwe-Zambia border revealed lake levels had dropped to just 13.5% of capacity, down from 22% a year ago. These extremely low levels which dropped as low as 12% in 2015, impact on food supply, the wildlife ecosystem, health, transport, tourism and the overall economy.
The ongoing El Niño is forecast to start easing from next month, but that’s too late to prevent a food crisis for the rest of the year. More than 2.7 million Zimbabweans will go hungry this year, said President Mnangagwa who explained that 80% of the country had received poor rains.
He stressed that the country’s top priority is “securing food for all Zimbabweans. No Zimbabwean must succumb to, or die from hunger.” He said the government would prioritise winter cropping to boost reserves, and work with the private sector to import grains. He appealed to United Nations agencies, local businesses and faith organisations to contribute towards humanitarian assistance.
Christian charity Barnabas Aid says it will take Zimbabwe years to recover from the drought disaster. Farmers who used to be able to harvest thousands of kilos of maize every year, will be lucky to produce a tiny fraction of that this year, with the maize crop effectively written off. The aid agency says malnourished school children are too weak to concentrate on their studies. Barnabas Aid recently sent 23 tonnes of food from Australia to provide half a million servings — but much more is needed.
Other humanitarian agencies including the World Food Programme which fed 270,000 people between January and March in four districts, have described the hunger situation as “dire”, calling on donors to provide more aid.
