Drought threatens 70 million in Africa

Maize field ravaged by drought in Zimbabwe (Photo: WFP Ncole Mwape)

In a horrific example of the effects of climate change, droughts and crop failures are hitting 70 million people in southern Africa.

Already people are starving, and mass deaths will take place unless there is immediate aid.

But such aid can give only short- term relief, and more destruction is guaranteed unless there is real action over environmental destruction.

The drought began at the beginning of the year and has devastated crop production with normally reliable harvests failing. Zimbabwe, Malawi and Zambia are among the countries in Southern Africa most affected by malnutrition.

Overall almost one in five of the region’s population are affected. The drought is linked to the El Nino climate process—a disruption of rainfall patterns caused by the warming surface waters of the eastern Pacific Ocean.

But it is massively worsened by climate change and global inequality. Zimbabwean farmer Georgina Kwengwere told the media, “I did not harvest anything after all my effort and using all our savings to buy seeds. Not even a single cob.”

Researchers at the Climate Hazards Centre (CHC) at the University of California found February 2024 was the driest February in the 40-year data record.

The recorded areas span much of Zambia, Zimbabwe, south eastern Angola, and northern Botswana. Lark Walters from the Famine Early Warning System Network, linked to aid providers, said “Food prices are extremely high at a time when most people are dependent on markets to meet their food needs.

“Many households have nearly or already exhausted their food stocks from this year’s harvest.”

Imperialism, colonialism and the slave trade hurled southern Africa backwards in the 19th century. The British grabbed Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi. The Portuguese seized Angola.

They ran these for the profit of their own corporations and to provide important raw materials. The world capitalist system has gripped this region even after independence.

And the capitalist fossil fuel economy, headed by the West and multinationals, also fuels climate change in African countries which produce only a tiny proportion of the damaging emissions.

Today wars, worsened by Western interference, are driving hunger in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Cabo Delgado in Mozambique.

Further north in Africa, aid agencies have declared famine in a Sudanese displacement camp in the besieged city of El Fasher.

Just outside the capital of North Darfur, about 600,000 people are estimated to be living in camps as a civil war rages between contending sections of the military.

But Africa is not a continent of hunger and despair. The recent waves of revolt in Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda and DRC show people fighting back against international financial institutions and their own ruling classes.

This is the real hope for change in Africa and a key component of the struggle against climate change.