This archive report was first published on 1 July 2020.
Published on July 1, 2020, a weather forecast warned of above-normal rainfall and a return of floods between June and September in parts of Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, Sudan, and Ethiopia.
The Nile River Basin and the Lake Victoria Basin, along with surrounding low-lying areas, are at an elevated risk of flooding.
According to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (Fews Net), the overall impact of the devastating floods is yet to be fully assessed due to the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Heavy rainfall and floods have caused significant crop damage and destroyed various infrastructure in affected areas.
Forty percent of paddies in southwestern Kenya were reportedly damaged by Lake Victoria overflows in surrounding low-lying regions.
Approximately 50,000 hectares of riverine and agropastoral farmland in Somalia was inundated, representing about 17 percent of total land cultivated during the April to June Gu season.
Several areas, including western Ethiopia, western Darfur, eastern and southern Sudan, northwestern South Sudan, are currently experiencing rainfall deficits and exhibiting drier-than-normal vegetation conditions.
Some pastoralist and marginal agricultural livelihood zones are experiencing rainfall deficits of 10-100 mm, with cumulative rainfall dropping by up to 55 percent of normal rains.
Rainfall deficits are also expected to emerge in coastal Kenya and Tanzania in the upcoming season.
The expected dry spell could inspire the formation of a third-generation of desert locust swarms, groups, and bands, which remain a threat to the region.
