Overview

• The 2023–2025 Drought Hotspots report finds that drought-affected land has doubled since 1900 and mega-drought frequency has surged over recent decades.
• UNCCD chief Ibrahim Thiaw describes drought as a “silent killer” and co-author Mark Svoboda calls it the worst global catastrophe he has seen.
• Global impacts documented include supermarket shortages in the UK, a 50 percent drop in Spain’s olive harvest, mass fish die-offs in the Amazon and a one-third reduction in Panama Canal traffic.
• Vulnerable populations such as women, children, the elderly and smallholder farmers face disproportionate harm, with forced child marriages more than doubling in East Africa.
• Economic tolls include an 8.9 percent spike in US sugar prices and the deaths of roughly 43,000 Somalis in 2022 from drought-related hunger.