Climate change sparks 'hunger crisis' from Angola to South Sudan
Persistent droughts, back-to-back cyclones and widespread flooding have wreaked havoc on harvests in southern Africa, sparking a hunger crisis that could affect 45 million people in the next six months.
According to three UN agencies - the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP) - the number of people facing food insecurity in the region is at record levels.
Already, 11 million people are facing “crisis” levels of hunger in nine countries that are struggling to cope with the aftermath of natural disasters, including Angola, Zimbabwe and Mozambique - which was devastated by Cyclone Idai earlier this year. The region is also facing the worst droughts for 35 years.
Over the next six months, the number of people going hungry is likely to climb - it typically takes several harvests before disrupted food production levels return to normal.
The challenges will be compounded by the region’s dependence on smallholder farms.
“Late rains, extended dry periods, two major cyclones and economic challenges have proved a recipe for disaster for food security and livelihoods across southern Africa,” said Alain Onibon, FAO’s sub-regional coordinator.
“As it could take many farming communities at least two to three growing seasons to return to normal production, immediate support is vital,” he said.
According to Kiri Hanks, climate policy advisor at Oxfam, climate change has made the weather in southern Africa more unpredictable and extreme - sparking the widespread food insecurity.
“Creeping disruption is becoming the new normal in Africa and that’s definitely down to climate change,” Ms Hanks told The Telegraph.
“We can say with certainty that this trend is getting worse and… instead of getting the predictable, steady rains you need for agriculture, they'll be more extreme weather.
“It’s becoming far more difficult for the farmers to grow food,” she added. “We saw that after Cyclone Idai in Mozambique, where we had a year’s worth or rain in two days. That’s the sort of event that just washes a harvest away.”
The situation is likely to get worse in coming years - according to the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), temperatures are rising at twice the global average in southern Africa.
And the region is home to six of the nine countries set to be hardest hit by adverse weather events in the coming years: Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
But the continent as a whole is one of the most vulnerable to climate change and earlier this year the UN launched a drought and flood appeal in Somalia on the same day.
This week, the South Sudanese government declared a state of emergency in 27 of the country’s 32 states as widespread flooding has displaced more than one million people.
“Local people are saying that this [flood] is completely unprecedented, nothing like it has been seen in living memory,” Ania Zolkiewska, head of mission for Médecins Sans Frontières in South Sudan stated.
“In Pibor, one of the worst affected areas, there is no clean water, food shortages, shelter shortages and extremely low access to health care. The flood waters easily reach your waist, if not higher, and the conditions are deteriorating.
“We will definitely have food insecurity,” she added. “People’s livelihoods have been completely washed away. And it’s going to get worse before it gets better - we expect the water will continue to rise, and more rain is expected.”
Flooding occurs annually in South Sudan as part of the rainy season - which runs from May to November. But this year the floods are extraordinary in terms of scope, severity and people affected, according to Unicef.
Some experts have attributed this to unusual rain to El Niño, while others say that because Indian ocean is warmer than normal, there has been increased evaporation off the African coastline which is later being dumped inland as rainfall.
Either way, there are concerns that the extreme weather will overturn some of the humanitarian progress made over the last 12 months, during a year-long ceasefire in the country’s civil war.
“People here were already facing poverty and food insecurity, but the situation was expected to improve in the coming months after a new harvest” Sajit Menon, Oxfam’s humanitarian manager in South Sudan stated.
“But now all the crops have been destroyed by the water. Even crops that were already harvested have been drenched… it’s going to cause huge food insecurity and it will take two or three years to recover,” he said.
Mr Menon added that health workers are concerned about the potential spread of malaria, cholera and diarrhea due to the high water levels, poor sanitation facilities and mass movement of people.
International Development Secretary Alok Sharma said: “African nations are responsible for just 2 to 3% of global emissions, but the continent is set to be one of the worst affected by climate change. We all have a responsibility to act now.
“Around 400,000 people have lost their homes to the devastating floods in South Sudan and droughts across Africa are pushing the poorest families towards dangerous levels of malnutrition.
“UK aid provides emergency life-saving supplies such as food and shelter, while using cutting-edge technology to help vulnerable communities prepare for the impacts of climate change.”
