Zimbabwe gets $32M in drought insurance from AU agency

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(Bloomberg) –Zimbabwe received $31.8 million from African Risk Capacity, an arm of the African Union, as part of an insurance payout for the devastation the country suffered from an El Niño-induced drought.  

Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube told reporters on Thursday in the capital, Harare, that the government has also approved a food distribution strategy to help those most in need.

“This blitz food distribution programme is targeting all food insecure vulnerable households in Zimbabwe and is currently supporting approximately 6 million people through the grain distribution programme,” he said. “This payout will contribute immensely towards complementing the early drought response intervention measures which government has put in place.”

Read More: Zimbabwe to Get 300,000-Ton Corn Delivery to Aid Drought Impact

In May, the African Union’s climate insurance agency said it will pay out at least $60 million to Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique to help them offset the impact of the weather catastrophe.

The money from African Risk Capacity is expected to benefit 509,000 households. The government directly received a payment of $16.8 million. The World Food Programme got $6.1 million, which will benefit some 200,000 people as part of drought mitigation in the southern African country. The AU agency also gave $8.9 million to a local aid group.

The government estimates that more than half of the country’s 17 million people will need food support until March after a drought caused by the El Niño weather phenomenon destroyed the nation’s corn crop, a staple in the southern African country. 

Zimbabwe consumes 2.2 million tons of corn annually but the country only expects to harvest 744,271 tons of maize this year, almost 70% less than a year earlier.