Africa

President Bola Tinubu and First Lady Oluremi Tinubu will be guests at Windsor Castle from 18 to 19 March.

L’acteur franco-algérien Riadh Belaïche, qui a amorcé une transition réussie vers le grand écran, tient l’un des rôles principaux dans « N121 ». Un projet […]

L’article Just Riadh : l’influenceur franco-algérien à l’affiche du thriller social N121 – Bus de nuit est apparu en premier sur .

Some Zambians outraged Ghanaians by describing the outfit worn by their president as a "blouse".

Gleich zwei Touristengruppen passiert in Thailand eine peinliche Verwechslung: Mitten auf einer Trauerfeier warten sie auf die Speisekarte – in der Annahme es handle sich um ein Restaurant. Doch die Trauerfamilie reagiert überraschend gastfreundlich.

Das Olympische Dorf ist in Cortina etwas anders als sonst: Holzbungalows statt Hotelkomplex. Trotzdem fehlt es den Athletinnen und Athleten an nichts. Ein Rundgang.

Ciara and Samuel L Jackson are among the big names who have become citizens of African countries in recent years.

Ciara and Samuel L Jackson are among the big names who have become citizens of African countries in recent years.

Barbie-Ikone Margot Robbie tourt derzeit für ihren neuen Film von Premiere zu Premiere. Zu reden geben dabei vor allem ihre extravaganten und bestens durchdachten Looks.

Olympia 2026 in Mailand und Cortina d'Ampezzo wird heute offiziell lanciert. Mit unserem Ticker bist du an der Eröffnungsfeier live dabei.

Bayerns Ministerpräsident Markus Söder stichelt gegen die deutsche Arbeitsmoral. Sein Vergleich mit der Schweiz entfacht eine hitzige Debatte im grossen Nachbarland. Was steckt dahinter?

Die Olympischen Spiele stehen für Höchstleistungen und starke Persönlichkeiten. Welcher Olympia-Wintersport spiegelt deinen Charakter am besten? Finde es in unserem Persönlichkeitstest heraus!

Am Freitag protestieren in Mailand Hunderte gegen ICE-Beamte bei den Olympischen Spielen. Die US-Einwanderungsbehörde steht wegen harter Aktionen in der Kritik, darunter zwei tödliche Einsätze. Die Proteste blieben friedlich.

Health experts fear that as testing and monitoring drops the risk of the further spread of HIV rises.

Health experts fear that as testing and monitoring drops the risk of the further spread of HIV rises.

Armed jihadists devastate a community that refused to convert to their hard-line interpretation of Islam.

Armed jihadists devastate a community that refused to convert to their hard-line interpretation of Islam.

The colonial police, made up of Nigerians and Europeans, shot dead workers striking for better conditions.

Film-maker Akinola Davies Jr says he wanted to explore the depiction of father-son relationships.

Flooding is quickly emerging as a threat that is compromising and undermining food security, health, infrastructure, and economies both in the short- and long-term. Credit: Shutterstock

By Esther Ngumbi
URBANA, Illinois, US, Feb 6 2026 (IPS)

South Africa, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe are currently experiencing severe flooding. According to the World Health Organization, 1.3 million people have been affected. In addition, hundreds of people have died , infrastructure has been destroyed, access to health services has been disrupted, and the risks of water- and mosquito-borne diseases are rising.

Alarmingly, the devastating impacts of flooding on  crop production, an important source of livelihoods in Africa, and on agricultural crops relevant to meeting food security needs rarely receive coverage or make headlines. If they do, the coverage does not comprehensively capture the extent of the damage or the immediate and long-term consequences of flooding.

Time and again, research has shown that flooding affects  global crop production and has immediate and long-lasting consequences for agricultural production, food systems, national economies, and food security

Also disturbing is the lack of coverage of the devastating impacts of flooding on soils, soil quality, soil health, and the billions of beneficial soil microorganisms that support the production of healthy and nutritious crops.

This needs to change. Time and again, research has shown that flooding affects  global crop production and has immediate and long-lasting consequences for agricultural production, food systems, national economies, and food security.

For example, a 2022 study reported that flooding threatened food security for more than 5.6 million people across several African countries. The study also found that an estimated 12 percent of food-insecure households in several African countries, including Nigeria, Kenya, Mozambique, and Malawi, experienced food insecurity due to flooding, which compromised their ability to produce, access, and utilize food.

Notably, this comprehensive study revealed that flooding impacts emerge at different spatial and temporal scales. Damage to crops and displacement of families occur immediately following flooding, but secondary impacts persist, leaving soils unhealthy and unable to support the production of healthy crops in subsequent seasons. In addition, infrastructure destroyed by flooding and livelihoods disrupted take time to rebuild.

Current and future climate forecasts indicate that  flooding and other weather and climate extreme events will continue  flooding and other weather and climate extremes will continue, underscoring the need for countries across Africa and around the world to prioritize efforts to understand and mitigate flooding.

So, what can be done?

First, to develop sustainable and sufficient solutions, it is important to comprehensively map flooding and  the many dimensions through which flooding and other climate change-associated stressors can lead to food insecurity.

Certainly, flooding can lead to and affect food insecurity through several driving mechanisms , including crop losses that reduce agricultural production, infrastructure damage that disrupts supply chains while hindering people’s ability to access markets. For example, the recent flooding events in South Africa and Mozambique have reportedly resulted in losses of economically important crops such as avocados and citrus, disrupted food transportation corridors, slowed cross-border logistics networks, and isolated communities, disrupting food distribution networks. Additionally, studies in Burkina Faso , Malawi, and South-Eastern Nigeria demonstrated that flooding can lead to crop failures and affect food security.

Second, there is an urgent need to develop a comprehensive understanding and assessment of who is most affected by flooding, at what scale, and how the multidimensional impacts of flooding on food security evolve over time.

Developing this kind of understanding requires systems thinking and cross-disciplinary coordinated collaboration, bridging disciplines such as climate science, agronomy, plant science, entomology, economics, nutrition, hydrology, epidemiology, public health, social science, data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence, and infrastructure.

For example, agronomists can quantify crop losses from flooding, soil changes, and recovery timelines. Economists, on the other hand, can model the impacts of flooding on livelihoods, markets, and national economies.

Data scientists can track floods and map flood risk zones, and infrastructure specialists can assess the vulnerability of current infrastructure to flooding. When these disciplines converge, they can help governments and humanitarian agencies develop data-driven action plans to prepare for, prevent, and implement timely flood response solutions.

Third, there is a need to proactively invest in both short- and long-term solutions to mitigate the negative impacts of flooding on food security and enhance livelihoods resillience and food security . Some proactive measures include restoring wetlands, which naturally act as flood buffers to absorb excess rainfall; building climate-resilient infrastructure; sharing early warning information with communities about upcoming flooding events; making affordable insurance policies available to farmers to protect their farming enterprises; and strengthening agrifood systems.

Strengthening agrifood systems can take multiple forms, including ensuring that farmers have access to flood-resilient crop varieties and that they plant diversified crops and adopt climate-smart agricultural practices, all of which can help buffer farmers, communities, and citizens of countries from flooding-related impacts.

Flooding is quickly emerging as a threat that is compromising and undermining food security, health, infrastructure, and economies both in the short- and long-term.

We must normalize accounting for the multidimensional impacts of flooding events on agriculture, soil health and quality, and the infrastructure that supports agricultural food systems and ecosystems. In doing so, the worst outcomes of flooding could be prevented in agriculture and food security.

The fisherman ran into a stream near the river after he and two friends encountered a herd of elephants.