The Southern African Development Community (SADC) region recorded the lowest annual rainfall since 1981 in the 2018-19 rainy season.
A report by the SADC Food Security Early Warning System Agromet revealed that a greater part of the region experienced a severe rainfall deficit. It said:
Many parts of southern Angola, northern and southern Botswana, northern Namibia, north-western South Africa, southern and western Zambia and north-western Zimbabwe received their lowest seasonal (October-March) rainfall totals since at least 1981.
However, some parts of the region received good rainfall for the greater part of the season.
These include northern Malawi, northern Mozambique, parts of Tanzania, and north-eastern Zambia.
The rainfall, coupled with cyclones which affected Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Malawi have put millions of people across the region at risk of starvation.