A month after Zambia's announcement, Malawi has also declared a state of disaster due to the prolonged drought caused by El Niño.
Malawi has declared a state of disaster due to drought. The government is now urgently seeking aid and assistance: the East African country's Department of Disaster Management Affairs has called on the international community to gather contributions to "alleviate the suffering" of all those affected by the ongoing drought.
The announcement came on Saturday 23 March, when Malawi's president, Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera, declared a state of disaster due to the ongoing drought in 23 of the country's 28 districts. McCarthy also issued an appeal for "urgent support" as the country grapples with what the government described as a "prolonged period of drought caused by El Niño".
El Niño, a naturally occurring meteorological phenomenon consisting of a warming of the surface temperature of the central-southern and eastern Pacific Ocean by at least half a degree (though it can reach 3–4 degrees), tends to cause warmer conditions and reduced rainfall and to increase the risk of food, water and health insecurity.
Chakwera stated that over 200 million dollars (approximately 185 million euros) in humanitarian assistance is needed. Malawi's decision comes less than a month after the same announcement by neighbouring Zambia. And it is not the first time this has happened: back in 2016, then-president Peter Mutharika had already declared a state of natural disaster due to lack of rainfall.
According to the seasonal monitoring of the United Nations World Food Programme (Wfp), in southern Africa the influence of El Niño is associated with below-average rainfall and below-average harvests.
In a February update, the Wfp stated that the region – which includes, in addition to Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana – was experiencing the driest February in forty years and that there were "severe rainfall deficits" in southern Malawi. After Zambia and Malawi, Zimbabwe too is seeing its harvests decimated and could be forced to follow the same course of action as its northern neighbours.
As early as January, the Wfp had announced that it was already working with the government of Zimbabwe and with humanitarian agencies to provide food to 2.7 million people living in rural areas of the country. The United States Agency for International Development, in its fiscal assessment for 2023, stated that the region is facing acute food insecurity and listed "conflict-induced displacement and numerous climate shocks" among the challenges that countries in the region will have to face.