Southern Africa: Humanitarian Snapshot (as of December 2025)

By the end of 2025, the Southern Africa region continued to face overlapping and intensifying humanitarian crises, leaving millions of people in need of assistance, including 1.6 million in Mozambique. Conflict, economic and political instability, and severe climate events such as droughts, cyclones, and floods, have continued to drive needs.

The lingering effects of the 2024 El Niño–induced drought, combined with episodes of excessive rainfall, negatively affected crop production and exacerbated food insecurity across the region. Persistent poor macroeconomic conditions have led to high food prices. As a result, nearly 12.2 million people remain food insecure. Madagascar, Mozambique, Malawi, and Zambia are among the worst affected countries, with the Government of Malawi declaring a state of disaster in all 28 districts in November. Deteriorating food consumption has contributed to rising levels of acute malnutrition, particularly in Madagascar. Across the region, nearly 180,000 children were estimated to experience acute malnutrition between January and October.

During the October–December (OND) rainy season, most countries recorded normal to above-average rainfall, with flooding reported in Madagascar, Mozambique, Malawi, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe, resulting in dozens of deaths, displacement of families and damage to homes and infrastructure. However, continued rainfall deficits led to abnormally dry conditions in parts of Angola, Madagascar and South Africa.

Public health emergencies persisted, with major disease outbreaks, including cholera, malaria, and mpox, overwhelming already weak health systems. Cholera cases increased slightly in the fourth quarter, with Angola accounting for the majority of reported cases, while a new cholera outbreak was declared in Namibia in November. Mpox cases also continued to be reported across several countries in the region.

Conflict and climate-induced disasters left about 877,000 people internally displaced and almost 646,000 refugees and asylum seekers. This displacement was largely driven by ongoing conflict in northern Mozambique, where renewed violence in November forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes. Despite funding shortfalls, humanitarians continued to support affected people. The Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) allocated US$6 million in December to assist people affected by renewed violence in Mozambique.