Pretoria/Nairobi/Geneva, 12 December 2019 –Hunger is threatening the lives of 11 million people in Southern Africa due to deepening drought and in the region. Red Cross teams across Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia and Zambia are scaling up their response to emergency and crisis levels of food insecurity. “This year’s drought is unprecedented, causing food shortages on a scale we have never seen here before,” said Dr Michael Charles, Head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) Southern Africa cluster. “We are seeing people going two to three days without food, entire herds of livestock wiped out by drought and small-scale farmers with no means to earn money to tide them over a lean season.” The countries with the most significant increase in food insecurity from last year are Zambia and Zimbabwe, with 2.3 million and 3.6 million people respectively suffering from acute food shortages. Botswana, Lesotho and Namibia have this year declared drought emergencies. In Eswatini, 24 per cent of its rural population is suffering from food shortages. The situation is set to worsen due to late or no rain in the region and crop production is down by 30 percent for the 2019/2020 harvest. In October, the IFRC launched an Emergency Appeal in Zambia to bring relief to those most affected by the persistent drought and is now widening its appeal for emergency funding to cover a further four countries affected by unprecedented levels of drought and hunger. The Red Cross Red Crescent Movement already has ongoing operations on food insecurity in Eswatini, Namibia, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe reaching 207,055 people (41,411 households). This newest appeal will broaden its reach to eight southern African countries and will target individuals not reached by other interventions in the region. “There is a major gap in investment in resilience and community-level capacities in countries hardest hit, including Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Eswatini,” Dr Charles said. “As a humanitarian collective, we must take immediate action to respond to millions who face imminent starvation. Even more importantly, it is our responsibility to strengthen communities’ resilience and ability to adapt to the current challenges. Otherwise, we will never end hunger in the region.” The IFRC is calling for 7.7 million Swiss francs to mitigate the food crisis in the region. The overall objective of the multi-country Emergency Appeal is to provide immediate food assistance and livelihood recovery support to the most affected households in the targeted communities for a period of 14 months.

Beira/Geneva, 8 November 2019—More than half a year since cyclones Idai and Kenneth hit Mozambique, thousands of people are at risk of disease outbreaks and worsening food insecurity during the coming rainy season. Food insecurity is expected to affect 2 million people in Mozambique by early next year and nearly 38,000 children are currently at risk of malnutrition. Communities affected by recent cyclones are among those that are at risk. The damage wrought on water, sanitation and hygiene facilities by the two cyclones are in part responsible for the increased health risks. Communities in the most impoverished areas of urban and peri-urban Beira have inadequate water and sanitation facilities, exposing families to diseases. DrJemilah Mahmood, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies’ (IFRC) Under Secretary General for Partnerships has been in central Mozambique leading a high-level delegation of Red Cross officials and donors visiting areas affected by cyclones Idai and Kenneth. She said: “The rainy season poses a real threat to the health of communities that are already extremely vulnerable. Mozambique is one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world. We have seen a clear trend of these disasters increasing. “We know future disasters will strike; we cannot prevent them. But we can massively reduce their impact by investing in local humanitarian capacity, by improving sanitation and hygiene practices and infrastructure, and by building stronger shelters that can weather storms.” The devastating human and economic toll of cyclones Idai and Kenneth are in major part due to a lack of this kind of anticipatory or preventative investment and programming. In May, IFRC reported that the price tag attached to Red Cross and UN response operations after the two cyclones was roughly 1,000 times the 340,000 Swiss francs that IFRC released before Idai made landfall to help evacuate and prepare at-risk communities. Dr Mahmood said: “This is one of the most painful and pertinent lessons of Mozambique: investments in preparedness are critical to reducing human suffering and saving countless lives. We call on governments, donors and humanitarian actors to do more to prevent and reduce the impact of future disasters here in Mozambique.” The Red Cross is working with affected communities to prepare for the coming rainy season as well as future disasters. This includes reconstructing homes that are flood and wind resistant, supporting community outbreak prevention and helping farmers grow stronger crops to tackle food insecurity. The Red Cross has provided more than 192,000 people with emergency relief and continues supporting those most vulnerable by providing shelter, health, water, sanitation, hygiene promotion, food assistance, psychosocial and livelihood support.