The United Nations estimates that food insecurity aggravated by El Niño has reached “unprecedented levels” in Mozambique, threatening almost five million people, against a backdrop of drought and a lack of international funding for support.
According to a report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), released on Tuesday, the conclusions result from analysing agricultural activity and food insecurity, indicating that “it has reached unprecedented levels in Mozambique”, with a total of 4,890,232 people threatened by this food insecurity by the end of the current campaign in March 2025.
According to OCHA, an estimated 912,000 face an emergency, and 3,978,314 are at crisis levels.
“This marks the highest number of food insecure people ever recorded” in Mozambique since 2017, when this analysis began, “underlining the increasing severity of the drought”, the report states.
According to OCHA, only 391,000 people affected by the drought “have received some form of support, including in highly affected areas in the provinces of Manica and Sofala”, in the centre of the country, namely through Mozambique’s government programmes.
The United Nations agency launched an appeal in 2024 for $222 million (€213 million) in international support to combat the effects of the drought in Mozambique but recognises that it faces “a significant funding shortfall”, having raised only $28.7 million (€27.5 million), equivalent to 13% of the identified needs.
According to OCHA, this shortfall “severely limits the humanitarian aid capacity of the actors providing timely and adequate aid”.
Mozambique is considered one of the countries most severely affected by global climate change. During the rainy season, which runs from October to April, the country experiences cyclical floods and tropical cyclones, as well as prolonged periods of severe drought.
El Niño is a change in atmospheric dynamics caused by increased ocean temperature. This meteorological phenomenon has caused torrential rains in East Africa this year, resulting in hundreds of deaths in countries such as Kenya, Burundi, Tanzania, Somalia, and Ethiopia.
Lusa
