Zimbabwe — humanitarian situation

Zimbabwe faces compounding humanitarian pressures from multiple shocks in mid-2026, including large-scale population returns, renewed disease outbreaks, deteriorating food security, and the lingering effects of early-year flooding. Since late June, escalating anti-migrant violence in South Africa has triggered a mass influx of Zimbabwean returnees, with the government reporting nearly 100,000 returns by mid-July IMC. Women and children comprise approximately 70 percent of returnees, with more than 20,000 Zimbabweans awaiting transportation support at diplomatic missions and assembly points across South Africa IMC. The violence, concentrated in major urban centers between March and June, resulted in displacement, intimidation, and at least four deaths, disrupting access to essential healthcare including life-saving HIV and chronic disease medication for affected populations MSF, IFRC. WFP is supporting the Government of Zimbabwe alongside other UN agencies in coordinating reception and assistance efforts for returnees, though the scale of returns continues to strain response capacity. Food security conditions are expected to deteriorate significantly as the year progresses, with Crisis-level (IPC Phase 3) outcomes anticipated to emerge in October across typical deficit-producing areas in the south, east, west, and extreme north FEWS NET. Households in these zones are expected to exhaust own-produced food stocks early and face below-average purchasing power amid high cereal prices, transitioning from current Stressed (IPC Phase 2) outcomes. Meanwhile, Zimbabwe is confronting renewed cholera transmission less than two years after controlling its largest epidemic in over a decade, which recorded 34,549 suspected cases and 718 deaths between February 2023 and June 2024 IFRC. The current outbreak began in July 2026, prompting emergency response operations. Additionally, Zimbabwe completed three synchronized vaccination rounds using novel oral polio vaccine type 2 as part of regional efforts to prevent re-establishment of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus following an outbreak declared in October 2023 WHO. Earlier flooding during the 2025/26 rainfall season, particularly intense between January and February, affected multiple areas through dam spillages and flash flooding IFRC, contributing to broader vulnerability across affected provinces.