Flooding forces evacuations at Kruger National Park as extreme weather batters Southern Africa

Severe flooding has forced the evacuation of around 600 tourists and staff from South Africa’s iconic Kruger National Park, after torrential rains submerged roads and camps across the vast wildlife reserve. The park, which spans roughly 22,000 square kilometers, was temporarily closed as authorities moved people to safety amid rising waters and infrastructure damage.

With floodwaters now receding, officials are beginning to assess the full scale of the destruction. South Africa’s Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Willie Aucamp, said aerial inspections revealed significant damage, particularly to key infrastructure. He noted that a high-water bridge near the Letaba rest camp was completely washed away, calling the rebuilding effort a “huge task” that will require detailed engineering assessments.

The flooding at Kruger is the latest in a series of extreme weather events to hit Southern Africa in recent years. The region has been battered by powerful cyclones that killed thousands across several countries, leaving widespread destruction in their wake. At the same time, prolonged and severe droughts have scorched farmland, cutting harvests and placing intense pressure on water resources.

These climate shocks have fueled food crises in parts of Southern Africa, a region that already struggles with chronic food shortages. Experts warn that increasingly frequent and intense extreme weather events are deepening humanitarian challenges and threatening both livelihoods and critical natural reserves.