Over 50Mln People In Sub-Saharan Africa Face Hunger From Drought, Conflict - Report

Recurring droughts in south, central and west Africa, combined with ongoing conflicts and climate change have created a hunger crisis affecting 52 million people, the international relief group Oxfam said in a report on Thursday

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 07th November, 2019) Recurring droughts in south, central and west Africa, combined with ongoing conflicts and climate change have created a hunger crisis affecting 52 million people, the international relief group Oxfam said in a report on Thursday.

"The scale of the drought devastation across southern Africa is staggering," Oxfam's Southern Africa Regional Director Nellie Nyang'wa said in the report. "We are witnessing millions of already poor people facing extreme food insecurity and exhausting their reserves because of compounding climate shocks that hit already vulnerable communities hardest."

Ofxam pointed out in the report that the affected 52 million people live in 18 nations across sub-Saharan Africa.

In the south, parts of Zimbabwe have had their lowest rainfall since 1981 which has helped push more than 5.5 million people into extreme food insecurity, the report said.

Zambia's rich corn-growing area has been decimated and exports are now banned; 2.

3m people there are food insecure, the report said, adding that the hunger crisis is also worsening in Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Madagascar, Namibia and Zimbabwe.

Extreme weather events have hit many countries already suffering from ongoing conflict, according to the report.

Across Africa, 7.6 million people were displaced by conflict in the first six months of 2019, and another 2.6 million by extreme weather.

In the Horn region of western Africa, Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan have simultaneously displaced 750,000 people due to conflict and another 350,000 from extreme weather.

Ofxam said some scientists have linked climate change to an increasing frequency and severity of multiple droughts and other extreme weather events.

Over the last decade, the 18 African countries have collectively suffered average annual losses of $700 million from climate-related disasters, the report added.