Malawi receives $11.2 million in insurance for El Niño-related drought disaster

Malawi’s government has received $11.2 million in insurance for a crippling El Niño-related drought that prompted the southern African nation to declare a state of disaster earlier this year.

The payment was made to Malawi this month, the African Development Bank said on Monday. Malawi had a drought insurance policy through the bank and the African Risk Capacity Group, an agency of the African Union.

The funds will support food assistance for about 235,000 households in some of the worst-affected regions in Malawi and will also help with direct aid payments to more than 100,000 households, the African Development Bank said. Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera said the payment was “a lifeline for our vulnerable populations”.

Malawi, which is already one of the poorest countries in the world, has had its food supply destroyed by the drought, which has been attributed to the natural El Niño weather phenomenon that lasted for a year before ending in June. The country declared a state of emergency in March and said there was a food crisis in 23 of its 28 districts.

Crops failed across the region after El Niño brought below-average rainfall between November and April. Tens of millions of people rely on small-scale agriculture for food and livelihoods in South Africa.

South Africa’s SADC bloc told a summit of heads of state in Zimbabwe this weekend that about 17 percent of the region’s population – some 68 million people – need aid because of the drought. The US Agency for International Development said the first three months of this year brought the worst drought in southern Africa in 100 years.

Zambia and Zimbabwe have also declared states of disaster and called for international aid, and Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe should receive drought insurance payments by September, the African Development Bank said.

They probably won’t be enough, though. Zimbabwe will receive $31.8 million, the bank said. In May, his government requested $430 million in humanitarian aid.

Photo: People queue for food at a World Food Program distribution center in Neno district, southern Malawi, March 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Kenneth Jali, File)

Copyright 2024 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.