(Bloomberg) – Southern African countries will start an appeal for $2.7 billion to cope with the effects of the region's worst drought in more than three decades that's left 23 million people in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.
Ian Khama, who is president of Botswana and chairman of the 15-country Southern African Development Community (SADC), will this month declare a regional disaster because of the drought and start an appeal for support, SADC said in an e-mailed statement Tuesday. The declarations enable international financial assistance.
Damaged crops
The El Niño-induced drought damaged crops from palm oil, rice and sugar in Asia to grains in southern Africa and robusta coffee in South America. About 60 million people worldwide face a lack of food because of the phenomenon that has scorched harvests in some areas and caused floods in others, the United Nations said last week. Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Swaziland and Zimbabwe have declared national emergencies while eight of South Africa's nine provinces have done the same.
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