Zimbabwe’s President, Emmerson Mnangagwa has declared a national disaster to fight the sustained drought crisis.
According to Mnangagwa on Wednesday, Zimbabwe needed $2bn (£1.6bn) to fight hunger caused by low rainfall which has wiped out about half of the maize crop.
The grain shortage has inflated food prices and an estimated 2.7 million people will be facing hunger.
Neighbour countries, Zambia and Malawi have also declared states of disasters due to drought recently.
The drought is a result of the El Nino global weather pattern and has set off a humanitarian crisis in southern Africa.
Zimbabwe will now join the regional scramble to source for enough maize on the international market.
Authorities have said that the number of people needing food aid are now much higher than the initial projection.
Zimbabwe had once been the breadbasket of southern Africa, but in recent years has suffered bouts of severe drought affecting crop and cattle.
This is the worst drought to hit Zimbabwe’s since 2019.
Not all droughts are attributed to climate change, but excess heat in the atmosphere is drawing more moisture out of the earth and making the droughts worse.
Already, thee world has warmed by about 1.2 C since since the industrial era began and temperatures will keep include unless the governments across the world make steep cuts to emissions.
