Mozambique: UN ranks country among most climate-vulnerable, 3.5 million face food insecurity
Mozambique is among the countries most vulnerable to climate change on the planet, "despite its very low contribution to it," declared Elisa Morgera, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on climate change, at the end of an eleven-day mission in the country, reported Africanews on October 3, 2026.
According to the UN, 3.5 million people there are already experiencing acute food insecurity. Mozambique, Malawi, and Madagascar are identified as the three African states most at risk, according to the same source.
A record-breaking El Niño announced
The forecasts cited by Africanews point to an El Niño episode of exceptional intensity for 2026, with severe heatwaves, below-average rainfall, and an increased risk of drought in Southern Africa. The phenomenon, linked to the periodic warming of Pacific waters, disrupts rainfall across a large part of the continent and primarily hits farmers who depend on a single wet season.
The country is emerging from a series of catastrophic floods and acute economic tensions, notes Africanews. This succession of climate and financial shocks leaves little respite between emergencies: crops lost in one season undermine the means to cope with the next.
The question of responsibility
The argument put forward by the UN rapporteur is the one that African states defend in climate negotiations: the countries that suffer the most from climate disruption are those that have emitted the fewest greenhouse gases. Mozambique, rich in natural gas and coal, finds itself at the heart of this contradiction, courted for its energy resources while paying the consequences of a crisis it did not cause.
Beyond promises of emergency aid, the response will be measured by concrete actions: functional early warning systems, drought-resistant seeds, roads and dikes repaired before the rainy season, and funding that arrives without increasing debt. It is by this standard that the attention paid to Southern Africa in the coming months will be judged.
This article was written in French with the help of artificial intelligence from the sources cited below, then translated from French automatically. Read the original.