The number of people affected by the combined impact of the El Nino and La Nina weather patterns could exceed 100 million by the end of the year, the United Nations said on Wednesday.
The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimates that more than 60 million people, two thirds of them in east and southern Africa, are facing food shortages because of droughts linked to El Nino, a climate phenomenon that occurs when water in the Pacific Ocean becomes abnormally warm.
The impact of La Nina, when waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean cool after a phase of El Nino, is not as severe – but the weather pattern has also been linked to floods and droughts.
“EL Nino has caused primarily a food and agricultural crisis,” FAO Director-General Jose Graziano da Silva said at a meeting of U.N. agencies in Rome to discuss the impact of El Nino in Africa and Asia Pacific.
He said almost $4 billion was needed to meet the humanitarian demands of countries affected by El Nino.
The United Nations has called on governments and the international community to increase efforts to boost the resilience of “highly vulnerable” communities who are struggling to feed themselves, as well as to help them prepare for La Nina.
The FAO was mobilizing extra funding for agriculture, food and nutrition, and to invest in disaster preparedness, he said.
“It [the FAO] will finance early actions that prevent unfolding disasters from happening,” Graziano da Silva said.
