According to the institution, some 2.7 million people are in need of food aid and there are fears of the appearance of diarrheal diseases due to the reduction of immunity caused by malnutrition, where cholera and polio already exist.

The drought plaguing Zimbabwe was elevated to official status on April 3 with the proclamation by President Emmerson Mnangagwa of a state of national disaster.

The declaration took on a dramatic tone when the president issued an appeal to the international community to cover the two billion dollars required to provide the necessary aid to the 2.7 million people threatened with death by starvation this year.

The request is the second from a country in this southern African region after the appeal for similar causes last February from the authorities of Zambia, its northern neighbor, followed in March by Malawi.

El Niño, with a change in the atmospheric dynamics caused by the increase in the temperature of the Pacific Ocean, contrary to what is happening in Zimbabwe, also caused floods and flooding of rivers due to torrential rains in Kenya, Burundi, Tanzania, Somalia and Ethiopia.

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