{"id":41603,"date":"2026-08-05T10:51:01","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T08:51:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=41603"},"modified":"2026-08-05T10:51:01","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T08:51:01","slug":"strong-el-nino-could-push-49-million-more-people-into-acute-hunger-un","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/strong-el-nino-could-push-49-million-more-people-into-acute-hunger-un\/","title":{"rendered":"Strong El Ni\u00f1o could push 49 million more people into acute hunger: UN"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">A powerful El Ni\u00f1o weather event could push an additional nearly 49 million people into acute food insecurity across \u200csome of the world&#8217;s most vulnerable regions by the end of next year, the World Food Programme (WFP) said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The United Nations (UN) agency said in a report that there was an 81% chance of a very strong El Ni\u00f1o event, with sea surface temperatures at their warmest levels since at least 1982 and potentially making it the strongest such event \u200bsince 1950.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">El Ni\u00f1o, a periodic warming of ocean surface temperatures in the Pacific, alters global weather patterns and is often associated\u00a0\u200bwith drought in Southern Africa, delayed monsoons in parts of Asia and erratic rainfall elsewhere.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">&#8220;These are events that \u2060in the past have triggered large-scale hunger,&#8221; Jean-Martin Bauer, director of WFP&#8217;s Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Service, told reporters.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Based on an analysis of 45 countries \u200bdeemed vulnerable to the adverse effects of El Ni\u00f1o, WFP estimates that the number of people facing acute food insecurity could rise by almost \u200b49 million to a total of 274 million people, an increase of 22%, relative to the baseline population already experiencing crisis-level food insecurity or worse.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Central America and Southern Africa are expected to be among the hardest-hit regions, with the number of food-insecure people set to increase by 83% in Central America and nearly 75% in Southern Africa, the \u200bWFP report said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Southern Africa as well as South America and the Caribbean could each see more than 12 million additional people fall into acute \u200bfood insecurity.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Bauer said global food markets entered the El Ni\u00f1o period in a relatively strong position following good harvests in 2025 but warned that conflict in the \u200cMiddle East \u2060and potential weather-related crop losses could put further upward pressure on prices.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">While past El Ni\u00f1o events have not typically triggered major global food price spikes, regional shortages and higher prices could worsen food access for vulnerable households, he said.<\/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},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-41603","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"El Ni\u00f1o weather could push nearly 49 million people into acute food insecurity","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/41603","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\/41603\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41604,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/41603\/revisions\/41604"}],"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=41603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=41603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}