Chimoio, Mozambique, July 2, 2026 (Lusa) - The Mozambican Red Cross has trained more than 9,000 families in the central province of Manica in drought and cyclone prevention and response, in connection with the ‘El Niño’ climate phenomenon, according to local officials.
“We are currently receiving some information about the ‘El Niño’ phenomenon, and we believe it is important for people to be prepared and to know how they can survive in the situations ahead,” said the president of the Mozambican Red Cross in that central province, as quoted in the media today.
According to Ricardo Simão, the programme will cover 1,572 families in the district of Machaze and around 8,146 households in the districts of Mossurize and Sussundenga, given climate forecasts indicating the possibility of drought and dry spells in the coming months.
The training, carried out in coordination with Mozambique’s National Institute for Disaster Risk Management and Reduction (INGD), aims to strengthen communities’ response capacity by promoting measures to prevent and adapt to these extreme weather events.
Ricardo Simão also noted that the exercise will, amongst other things, teach communities how to preserve food and store water appropriately.
Fenias Nguenha, chief of Chipopopo, one of the localities in the district of Machaze, stated that conducting simulation exercises helps prepare communities and put them on standby to respond to situations of low rainfall.
“The community knows how to respond and what to do; they have received supplies and all the support possible,” concluded Nguenha.
Mozambique experienced unusual weather events during the 2025–2026 rainy season, with January and February classified as the wettest and driest on record in 46 years, respectively, according to an assessment by the National Institute of Meteorology.
“Generally speaking, much of southern Mozambique experienced its wettest January since 1981. Some areas in the provinces of Maputo, Gaza and Inhambane can be considered the wettest over the 46-year period analysed,” states a document from Mozambique’s National Institute of Meteorology (INAM) assessing the climate of the 2025–2026 rainy season.
Southern Mozambique and the centre of the Mozambican province of Tete experienced extreme rainfall in January, resulting in urban flooding and “severe flooding” in the Umbeluzi, Incomati, Limpopo, Save and Búzi river basins, whilst the northern region and parts of the centre recorded below-normal rainfall.
On 16 May, the Mozambican authorities warned of a forecast severe weather event associated with ‘El Niño’, with the potential to affect various social, economic and environmental sectors in the country.
In a statement, Mozambique’s National Institute of Meteorology (Inam) noted that current projections from global climate models indicate a high probability of an ‘El Niño’ event occurring in the coming months, with a strong tendency to persist until the start of the second half of the next rainy season (2026/2027).
According to the document, the impacts of ‘El Niño’ in Mozambique generally include, for the southern and central regions, a high likelihood of erratic rainfall that tends to be below normal and temperatures above the climatological norm; and, for the north, a high likelihood of regular rainfall that tends to be above normal.
Mozambique is considered one of the countries most significantly affected by global change, facing cyclical flooding and tropical cyclones during the rainy season, which runs annually from October to April.
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