Southern Africa Sits Between Drought and Famine

Warming waters in the east Pacific Ocean – the El Nino effect – is causing a massive drought in southern Africa, with famine to follow. Zimbabwe, in the centre of the southern third of the African continent, usually receives about 300 millimetres (12 inches) of rain by the middle of what is now the southern hemispheric summer (October to April). By mid-January it had been blessed by only half of that amount in Harare, the capital. Farther south, toward the South African border, only 10 millimetres had fallen. Zimbabwe’s major cities are rationing water already, with South Africa’s cities next. The wealthy West should prepare itself to help.