A Perfect Storm

Millions suffer as 'Global Drought' fueled by climate change deepens. Given the combination of El Niño and climate change, the drought event amplified already harsh climate change impacts, triggering dry conditions across major agricultural and ecological zones. The drought's impacts hit hardest in climate hotspots, regions already suffering from warming trends, population pressures, and fragile infrastructure

- SV KRISHNA CHAITANYA @Chennai

Sixty-eight million people needing food aid in Southern Africa, 23 million facing acute hunger in Eastern Africa, 4.4 million in Somalia at crisis-level food insecurity, and 1.7 million children suffering acute malnutrition in Somalia—millions are suffering as the global drought crisis deepens in 2023-2025, according to a comprehensive report released today by the U.S. National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC) and the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), titled Drought Hotspots Around the World 2023-2025.

Supported by the International Drought Resilience Alliance (IDRA), the report synthesizes data from over 250 peer-reviewed studies, official records, and media sources across more than a dozen countries, revealing a slow-moving catastrophe that has devastated ecosystems, economies, and human lives since 2023. With impacts persisting into 2025, experts warn that the world is entering a "new normal" of escalating drought severity.

The data is alarming. In Eastern and Southern Africa, over 90 million people face acute hunger, with 68 million in Southern Africa requiring food aid as of August 2024. Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Malawi have seen repeated crop failures, with Zimbabwe's 2024 maize harvest plummeting 70% year-on-year, driving maize prices to double and leading to the death of 9,000 cattle from thirst and starvation. In Somalia, 43,000 people died in 2022 due to drought-linked hunger, and by early 2025, 4.4 million—over a quarter of the population—face crisis-level food insecurity, including 784,000 at emergency levels.

The energy crisis in Zambia has cascading effects. The Zambezi River, critical for hydropower, dropped to 20 per cent of its long-term average discharge by April 2024, reducing the Kariba Dam's generation capacity to 7 per cent. This triggered blackouts lasting up to 21 hours daily, shuttering hospitals, bakeries, and factories.