Highlights
SADC declares Regional Drought Disaster and launches a Regional Humanitarian Appeal for assistance to support the ongoing and planned response efforts of its Member States.
The Humanitarian Appeal is a result of the negative impacts of the 2015/16 El Niño induced drought, the worst in 35 years,
The Appeal follows declaration of national drought emergencies by six Member States (Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Swaziland and Zimbabwe) and two Member States who have declared partial drought disasters. South Africa (8 of the country’s 9 provinces.) and Mozambique (red alert for some southern and central areas).
The Region has a response funding gap of US$2.5 billion to cover an estimated 41m people (about 14% of total SADC population), with 26m requiring immediate humanitarian assistance.
SADC has establishment an El Niño Logistics and Coordination Team to support regional engagement and coordination of response operations.
Local and international community is already responding to appeal for assistance to affected Member States.