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BLANTYRE/MAPUTO. — Malawian President Peter Mutharika has declared a state of disaster as a severe drought has caused a sharp decline in crop production across the country. “I declare Malawi (in) a state of national disaster following prolonged dry spells during the 2015-16 agriculture season,” Mutharika said in a statement yesterday. “The projected drop in maize harvest is estimated at 12 percent from last year’s output,” said the statement.
“More people will be food insecure and will require humanitarian relief assistance for the whole of the 2016-17 consumption year.” The declaration will help both local and international organisations solicit aid for the needy.
The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) said it was currently assisting nearly three million people in Malawi, whose 23 of 28 districts are badly affected. “The current drought situation in Malawi came on the back of a bad crop last year, due to flooding which affected parts of the country,” WFP’s southern Africa spokesman David Orr said.
“The situation is quite dire and we believe the worst is still to come. It will take a long time before the situations improves. Any improvement in the next months would be negligible,” Orr said.
WFP warned on February 15 that about 49 million people were at risk of being affected by drought in southern Africa, adding that 14 million people were already facing hunger in the region.
Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia are all suffering food supply problems, while South Africa declared the recent drought its worst in at least 100 years.
In neighbouring Zimbabwe, more than a quarter of the rural population — comprising some 2,44 million people — does not have enough to eat.
In early February President Mugabe declared a state of disaster in rural areas hit by a severe drought, as more than a quarter of the population face food shortages.
Meanwhile, the government of Mozambique declared on Tuesday an institutional red alert as 1,5 million people across the country are being seriously affected by lack of food due to droughts.
“Due to this, the government decided to declare red alert for a period of 90 days with the following purposes: intensification of assistance for the affected people and the expansion of the areas of intervention by the government and co-operation partners,” said government spokesperson, Mouzinho Saide.
Saide said the government will be releasing funds in order to assist people affected by food insecurity. The southern African country is seriously affected by the El Nino phenomenon this year, which resulted in the floods in the north and droughts in the south and central parts of the nation.
The National Disasters Management Institute (INGC) has estimated that it needs US$13m a month to aid victims of the drought in the southern and central provinces.
INGC said that about 1,5 million people are currently in a situation of food insecurity, of whom 315 000 are currently receiving food aid.
In terms of the number of people affected, the provinces worst hit by the drought are Tete and Sofala in the center of the country and Gaza in the south.
According to the latest figures from the INGC, the number of those affected by the floods in northern provinces is revised downwards to 10 000, and the situation in the north was now under control. — Angencies/HR.
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