New York: 90 million people face a hunger crisis as drought sweeps over Eastern and Southern Africa, a new report from the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the U.S. National Drought Mitigation Centre (NDMC), and the International Drought Resilience Alliance on the global impacts of droughts from 2023 to 2025 says.
According to the report, some areas in the region have been experiencing the worst drought ever recorded. In Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Malawi, maize and wheat crops have suffered repeated failures.
In Zimbabwe in particular, the 2024 corn crop was down 70 per cent year-on-year, maize prices doubled, and 9,000 cattle died of thirst and starvation.
Some 43,000 people in Somalia died in 2022 alone due to drought-linked hunger.
The crisis persisted through 2025, with a quarter of the population experiencing crisis-level food insecurity at the start of the year.
As a result of the drought, Zambia is experiencing one of the world’s worst energy crises, according to the report.
In April, the Zambezi River plummeted to 20 per cent of its long-term average, and the country’s largest hydroelectric plant, the Kariba Dam, dropped to 7 per cent of its generation capacity.
This has caused electricity blackouts of up to 21 hours a day.
This has also led to the shutting of hospitals, bakeries, and factories, further compounding the devastation.
The report indicates that the most widespread and damaging drought events in recorded history have occurred in recent years, mainly due to climate change and resource depletion.
Ibrahim Thiaw, the UNCCD Executive Secretary, said: “Drought is a silent killer. It creeps in, drains resources, and devastates lives in a slow, steady manner. Its scars run deep.”
Dr Mark Svoboda, the report co-author and NDMC Director, also expressed, “This is not a dry spell. This is a slow-moving global catastrophe, the worst I’ve ever seen.
“This report underscores the need for systematic monitoring of how drought affects lives, livelihoods, and the health of the ecosystems that we all depend on.”
The report outlined several recommendations to help combat this crisis, including the establishment of stronger early warning systems and the implementation of real-time drought and drought impact monitoring.
The others are nature-based solutions, such as watershed restoration and the use of indigenous crops.
It also called for more resilient infrastructure, including off-grid energy and alternative water supply systems, as well as global cooperation, particularly regarding transboundary river basins and trade routes.
