El Nino Hits 31,000 Families in Central Mozambique

By António Massipa

"Because of hunger, other children and I dropped out of school,” says Sozinha José, a 16-year-old girl whose family has been severely affected by drought in central Mozambique. The El Niño phenomenon is exacerbating food insecurity for thousands of families, who were already in a vulnerable situation following cyclone Freddy that hit Mutarara district in 2023.

The 2024 Mutarara Government Mid-Year Performance Report indicates that “the district's population, which was hit last season by cyclone Freddy”, is now being affected “by the El Nino phenomenon, which has caused drought and a lack of rainfall, resulting in the loss of approximately 15,992 hectares of ploughed and sown land, which corresponds to 26.3 per cent, directly affecting 31,000 families in the district.”

Sozinha José, who has lost both her father and mother, lives with her grandmother Fanita and cousin Ismael. The girl says, “I'm suffering with hunger here. Before, we used to produce [food] normally, but now we're suffering because of drought. Even though we grew some crops, all the produce dried up because of lack of rain. In these last two years, from 2023 to 2024, we haven't been able to produce anything in the field.”

“To survive, my grandmother and I go to the river to look for waterlily tubers to cook and eat. Some days we don’t manage to find the tubers. In those days we have nothing to eat,” she adds.

Sozinha is an example of 31,000 families affected by the drought caused by El Niño in that part of the country, as indicated by the local government report: "10,020 families engaged in agriculture, 7,819 women heads of household, 3,583 chronically ill, 2,349 children heads of household, 5,639 elderly people and 2,574 disabled people."