Sixty-eight million people needing food aid in Southern Africa, 23 million facing acute hunger in Eastern Africa, 4.4 million in Somalia at crisis-level food insecurity, and 1.7 million children suffering acute malnutrition in Somalia — millions are suffering as the global drought crisis deepens in 2023-2025, according to a comprehensive report released today by the U.S. National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC) and the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), titled Drought Hotspots Around the World 2023-2025.
Supported by the International Drought Resilience Alliance (IDRA), the report synthesises data from over 250 peer-reviewed studies, official records, and media sources across more than a dozen countries, revealing a slow-moving catastrophe that has devastated ecosystems, economies, and human lives since 2023. With impacts persisting into 2025, experts warn that the world is entering a “new normal” of escalating drought severity.
The data is alarming. In Eastern and Southern Africa, over 90 million people face acute hunger, with 68 million in Southern Africa requiring food aid as of August 2024. Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Malawi have seen repeated crop failures, with Zimbabwe’s 2024 maize harvest plummeting 70% year-on-year, driving maize prices to double and leading to the death of 9,000 cattle from thirst and starvation. In Somalia, 43,000 people died in 2022 due to drought-linked hunger, and by early 2025, 4.4 million—over a quarter of the population—face crisis-level food insecurity, including 784,000 at emergency levels. The energy crisis in Zambia has cascading effects. The Zambezi River, critical for hydropower, dropped to 20 per cent of its long-term average discharge by April 2024, reducing the Kariba Dam’s generation capacity to 7 per cent. This triggered blackouts lasting up to 21 hours daily, shuttering hospitals, bakeries, and factories.
“This is the worst I’ve ever seen,” said Dr Mark Svoboda, NDMC director and report co-author. “A slow-moving global catastrophe that demands systematic monitoring of its impacts on lives, livelihoods, and ecosystems.”
In the Mediterranean, Spain’s olive production fell 50 per cent by September 2023 due to two years of drought and record heat, doubling olive oil prices nationwide. Morocco’s sheep population shrank by 38 per cent from 2016 to 2025, prompting a royal plea to cancel traditional Eid sacrifices. Türkiye reported over 1,600 sinkholes from groundwater depletion, posing hazards to communities and infrastructure. “The Mediterranean countries are canaries in the coal mine for modern economies,” Svoboda added. “Their struggles preview water futures under unchecked global warming.”
Latin America’s Amazon Basin recorded historically low river levels in 2023 and 2024, killing over 200 endangered river dolphins and thousands of fish, while disrupting water and transport for hundreds of thousands. The Panama Canal saw daily transits drop from 38 to 24 ships between October 2023 and January 2024, causing global trade disruptions — US soybean exports slowed, and UK grocery stores reported shortages and rising fruit and vegetable prices. In Southeast Asia, drought-driven shortages in Thailand and India pushed U.S. sugar and sweets prices up 8.9 per cent in 2023-2024. In South Asia, India faced severe drought conditions in 2024, with over 10 million people in states like Maharashtra and Rajasthan affected by water shortages, leading to a 15 per cent drop in wheat production and sparking rural protests over irrigation access.
Mexico faced its own ordeal, with 90 per cent of the country under drought by June 2024, reservoirs critically low, and protests erupting over water-sharing with the U.S. under the 1944 Treaty, which mandates 1.75 million acre-feet of Rio Grande water by October 2025.
The human toll is profound, particularly for vulnerable groups. In Eastern Africa, forced child marriages doubled as families sought dowries to survive, despite being outlawed in Ethiopia. In Zimbabwe, entire school districts saw mass dropouts due to hunger and sanitation issues for girls. In the Amazon, the river fell to its lowest level ever, stranding communities—including women giving birth—and leaving towns without potable water. In India, rural women spent up to six hours daily fetching water, exacerbating gender disparities. “The coping mechanisms grew increasingly desperate,” said lead author Paula Guastello, NDMC drought impacts researcher. “Girls pulled from school, hospitals going dark, families digging in dry riverbeds for contaminated water—these are signs of a severe crisis.”
Wildlife has not been spared. Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park lost 100 elephants to starvation between August and December 2023, while Botswana saw hippos stranded in dry riverbeds. Some nations, including Zimbabwe and Namibia, culled 200 elephants to feed communities and prevent overgrazing. The report attributes this crisis to a “perfect storm” of El Niño and climate change. The 2023-2024 El Niño amplified dry conditions across agricultural and ecological zones, with the OECD estimating that a drought episode today costs at least twice as much as in 2000, with a 35 per cent to 110 per cent increase projected by 2035. “El Niño added fuel to the fire of climate change, compounding effects for vulnerable societies past their limits,” said Dr Kelly Helm Smith, NDMC assistant director and co-author.
The economic fallout is staggering. Zambia’s power shortages cost jobs and an estimated 6 per cent of GDP annually, while Spain invested €22.84 billion in irrigation and water infrastructure. Global trade disruptions from the Panama Canal rerouting added costs and delays, with ripple effects felt worldwide. In India, the wheat production loss contributed to a 12 per cent rise in food inflation in 2024.
The report calls for immediate action, advocating for early warning systems and real-time monitoring of drought and food/water insecurity, nature-based solutions like watershed restoration and indigenous crop use, resilient infrastructure such as off-grid energy and alternative water supplies, gender-responsive adaptation to protect women and girls from marginalisation, and global cooperation to manage transboundary rivers and trade routes.
UNCCD executive secretary Ibrahim Thiaw warned, “Drought is a silent killer. It creeps in, drains resources, and devastates lives in slow motion. It’s here, escalating, and demands urgent global cooperation.”
Deputy UNCCD executive secretary Andrea Meza emphasised the interconnected impacts: “From rising commodity prices in Southeast Asia and the Mediterranean to water and food access issues in the Amazon, to malnutrition across Africa and India — urgent investment in sustainable land and water management is critical to avoid economic shocks and forced migration.” IDRA’s third vice-president of Spain, Sara Aagesen, highlighted financial mobilisation efforts: “At the Seville Conference, we’re calling for strategic collaboration to support vulnerable populations.”
As the data mounts — 68 million needing food aid in Southern Africa, 23 million in acute hunger in Eastern Africa, 70% maize loss in Zimbabwe — do we have the will to prevent suffering with the resources and knowledge we possess? With drought’s scars running deep into 2025, the world’s response will define its future resilience.