Around 231,000 families in Tete province, in central Mozambique, are facing food insecurity due to the impacts of the El Niño climate phenomenon, Lusa reported on Tuesday, 17 December.
The information was shared by the provincial director of Agriculture and Fisheries, Odete Naftal, who pointed out that the province has lost ’257,754 hectares and this has affected 231,920 families, who have lost areas during this agricultural campaign.’
According to the official, the situation, which covers eight districts in the province, is the result of prolonged drought, a factor that has contributed to this year’s low agricultural yields.
‘Although we’ve launched the 2024-25 agricultural campaign, we still haven’t had any rain, except in the plateau region. The southern part of the province has yet to see any rainfall,’ Naftal explained, adding: ’Agricultural inputs, seeds, pesticides and fertilisers have been donated to the affected families.’
The United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) recently estimated that around 4.8 million people need humanitarian assistance in the country, with 4 billion meticals (64 million dollars) needed to meet the needs.
‘The multiple crises currently affecting Mozambique – conflict, drought and public health emergencies – are putting a strain on humanitarian resources. Around 4.8 million people need support, including 3.4 million children, 10 per cent of whom are people with disabilities,’ says a statement from the organisation.
Mozambique is one of the countries most severely affected by global climate change, facing cyclical floods and tropical cyclones during the rainy season, which occurs between October and April.
El Niño is a change in atmospheric dynamics caused by rising ocean temperatures. This phenomenon has caused not only droughts in some regions, but also torrential rains in East Africa, which have already resulted in hundreds of deaths in countries such as Kenya, Burundi, Tanzania, Somalia and Ethiopia.
