floods

Heavy rains have swollen river basins in north Bangladesh, leading to severe flooding, submerging towns and destroying homes and crops in a region already suffering due to the coronavirus pandemic, Oxfam said today.

Oxfam warned today that millions of people in East and Central Africa, already suffering due to flooding and the impact of coronavirus, are at risk of increased hunger and poverty as the region braces for the latest generation of locusts which are due to hatch in June ―just when crops are to be harvested.

Oxfam is preparing for a potential response as swarms of locusts sweep across Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia and are likely to grow 500 times bigger by June to neighboring Uganda and South Sudan. The plagues are hitting the East African region where food insecurity has already reached record levels.

More than 52 million people in 18 countries across southern, eastern and central Africa are facing up to crisis levels of hunger as a result of weather extremes, compounded by poverty and conflict.

 

The first fatality has been confirmed and the number of cases is soaring, now over 1,000.

Oxfam has distributed emergency supplies to survivors of Cyclone Idai in Nsanje district, one of the worst hit areas in the southern tip of Malawi, and in camps in Buzi near the city of Beira in Mozambique. 

Oxfam staff speak of desperation, loss of hope and home, people in treetops - as rains are still falling and waters rising in some areas.

Oxfam will be responding with water, sanitation services, food and other non-food items to people affected by Cyclone Idai that hit Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

Damage and fear caused by the first rains of the monsoon season in the Rohingya refugee camps are an ominous warning of what is to come.

Climate change is already forcing people from their land and homes, and putting many more at risk of displacement in the future. This paper describes the effects on communities and how responding to these growing realities demands far stronger action towards ending global climate pollution.