{"id":40733,"date":"2026-07-27T09:30:51","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T07:30:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=40733"},"modified":"2026-07-27T09:30:51","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T07:30:51","slug":"africa-facing-billions-economic-hit-from-super-el-nino-afdb-climate-chief-warns","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/africa-facing-billions-economic-hit-from-super-el-nino-afdb-climate-chief-warns\/","title":{"rendered":"Africa facing billions economic hit from &#8216;super&#8217; El Ni\u00f1o, AfDB climate chief warns"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">An impending &#8220;super&#8221; El Ni\u00f1o is likely to inflict a combined $10 billion to $20 billion hit on affected African countries and trigger mass migration from hard-hit areas, the African Development Bank&#8217;s (AfDB) top climate \u200bexpert told <em>Reuters.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Forecasters are warning that the El Ni\u00f1o weather pattern, which often drives severe droughts, flooding and storms in Africa, could turn into one of the strongest \u200cever seen if current Pacific Ocean warming trends continue.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">As well as the threat to food and water security, government finances and banking sectors could also be undermined if disasters damage infrastructure and leave cash-strapped countries struggling to repay the connected loans.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">&#8220;Just this event is going to reduce heavily affected countries&#8217; GDP by 1% to 2% on average, which is about $10 billion to $20 billion across the continent,&#8221; Anthony Nyong, the AfDB&#8217;s director for climate change \u200band green growth, said in an interview.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The AfDB&#8217;s most recent forecasts in May predicted Africa as a whole would see 4.2% economic growth this year, rising to 4.4% \u200bin 2027 assuming the United States and Israeli war on Iran eases.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">That, however, was before forecasts of a &#8220;super&#8221; or &#8220;Godzilla&#8221; El Ni\u00f1o were made.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Nyong&#8217;s estimate of the likely $10 \u2060to $20 billion hit is the first given by a major multilateral development bank in relation to El Ni\u00f1o. He did not provide a country-by-country breakdown of the estimate but warned it was \u200bunlikely to be a one-off either.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Drought conditions, which much of the Sahel region has been suffering from in recent years, may persist, while Mozambique&#8217;s experiences after Cyclone Idai in 2019 show it \u200bcan take years to recover from major storms.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13957,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[],"class_list":["post-40733","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"El Ni\u00f1o is likely to inflict a combined $10 billion to $20 billion hit on affected African countries","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/40733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/40733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40734,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/40733\/revisions\/40734"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=40733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}