The United Nations on Tuesday launched a US$70 million humanitarian assistance appeal for more than two million Malawians facing hunger following a poor 2023/24 farming season.
United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) country representative Paul Turnbull said the UN agency required “urgent resources” to deliver life-saving food assistance to two million people reeling from the devastating impacts of drought that has been exacerbated by the effects of El Niño.
“The impact is huge, and so are the needs. We can avert a hunger catastrophe for the hardest hit families, but time is not on our side,” Turnbull said.
He added: “I’m calling on the international community to step up now and help us save lives.”
He said WFP required US$70 million to provide emergency food assistance to two million people for three months, delivering a combination of in-kind and cash to affected households.
Given the long lead times to procure food to address dire humanitarian needs, WFP aimed to have the food supplies in place by October to mitigate the impact of the coming lean season that runs until March 2025.
This comes just days after President Lazarus Chakwera, on March 23, declared a state of disaster in 23 out of Malawi’s 28 districts affected by El Niño conditions that cause droughts in southern Africa.
The government’s preliminary assessment is that close to two million farming households and 749,000 hectares, representing 44 percent of the national crop area have been affected.
As a result, the onset of the 2024/2025 lean season is anticipated to be earlier and more severe than usual.
As national maize stocks run low, the country has been forced to import staple commodities, driving food prices to alarming levels.
JN/APA