Zambia Country Office Humanitarian Situation Report - 2025
Situation Overview & Humanitarian Needs
Highlights
The lingering impacts of the 2023/24 El Niño-induced drought that hit Zambia continued to push millions of people to the edge. The drought, which was declared a national disaster in February 2024, affected over 9 million people in more than 70 per cent of the country’s 117districts, and rendering over 3 million children food insecure, and more than 51,000 at risk of severe wasting, with limited water access to further heightening vulnerability to malnutrition, diarrheal diseases, and cholera. Zambia experienced a record-breaking maize harvest in the 2024/2025 agricultural season, with projections reaching over 3.6 million tonnes, resulting in a significant surplus and improved national food security after the previous year's drought.
Cholera outbreaks that began in December 2024 affected 18 districts and resulted in 490 cases and 9 deaths by early 2025; despite the outbreak being declared closed in May, a second wave of transmission was recorded in 17 districts affecting 617 and causing 9 deaths (CFR = 1.46%) as at the end of December 2025. At the same time, Zambia was responding to a Mpox outbreak declared in October 2024, which had since spread to nine of the ten provinces. By December 2025, there had been 378 cumulative confirmed cases reported with a CFR of 1.1%. Of all the confirmed cases, 374 (98.9%) were reported in 2025. Zambia has isolated the clade 1b of Mpox virus and shares a porous border with the DRC where, clade 1b overwhelmed health systems before, thus Mpox remains a public health concern in Zambia. On the other hand, Zambia had been facing sporadic measles outbreaks since January 2025, across all ten provinces. As of end December 2025, the country had recorded 2,488 suspected cases, tested 1,088 suspected cases, of which 234 were confirmed as Measles. Most affected individuals were children under five years old, 89% of whom were either unvaccinated or had an unknown measles vaccination status, significantly increasing their vulnerability. Overall, this pattern highlights significant immunity gaps and underscores the need for enhanced, targeted outbreak response in high-burden and high-positivity provinces, alongside sustained, high-quality surveillance nationwide. Persistent heavy rainfall in late December 2025 caused widespread flooding across several parts of Zambia, resulting in significant damage to infrastructure in some districts, displacement of communities and loss of 3 lives and disruption to livelihoods.
