The story from a human perspective<\/p>\n
A farmer in Zambia who hasn’t seen a maize harvest.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A mother in Somalia carrying her sick children through floodwater.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A baby in Malawi, crying because she’s starving.<\/p>\n
These aren’t isolated stories. They’re what happens when El Ni\u00f1o arrives.<\/p>\n
El Ni\u00f1o made simple<\/p>\n
El Ni\u00f1o is a natural climate pattern, a periodic warming of the Pacific Ocean that shifts weather around the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It’s not new, and it’s not caused by climate change, although climate change can worsen its impact.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Forecasters expect El Ni\u00f1o to intensify in coming months and to possibly stretch into early 2027.<\/p>\n
\u00a9 WFP\/Gabriela Vivacqua
\n A farmer inspects a drought-stricken maize crop in Zambia.<\/p>\n
For millions of people in southern and eastern Africa, that’s not a weather forecast. It’s a stark warning.<\/p>\n
Where the threat lands and how<\/p>\n
El Ni\u00f1o doesn’t hit everywhere the same way.<\/p>\n
In eastern Africa, from Somali to Tanzania, it tends to mean too much rain. Flash floods, rivers bursting their banks, landslides, homes underwater, roads washed out, clinics and schools cut off.<\/p>\n
In southern Africa, from Zambia to South Africa and from Namibia to Mozambique, it usually means the opposite; not enough rain which means crops failing, water sources drying up, and pastures disappearing.<\/p>\n
Different weather, but the same outcome; the most vulnerable people lose the safety nets that keep them alive.<\/p>\n
Esnart Chongani is a farmer in Zambia. She said the 2024 drought meant her family harvested no maize at all.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cI cannot remember anything like this,\u201d\u00a0she said. People are so hungry. The generosity of our community has disappeared because everyone is struggling.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Martha Kalumbi in Malawi, whose baby was hospitalised for malnutrition said a failed harvest left her family and everyone around her, with nothing.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy child was always crying. Doctors told me she was starving and getting malnourished,\u201d she said. \u201cI was afraid that my baby might die. The situation was painful.\u201d<\/p>\n
And it’s not just hunger. Floods contaminate water supplies, which fuels outbreaks of cholera and other waterborne disease.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Standing water breeds mosquitoes, driving up malaria.\u00a0<\/p>\n
People lose homes and get displaced, sometimes for good.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In Somalia, a mother of nine named Asha Mohamed was pushed from her home by the 2023 floods.<\/p>\n
\u201cLife became challenging after the floods,\u201d she said. \u201cMy children fell sick, and I had no money to buy medicine or take them to a proper health facility.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
How the UN is getting ahead of El Ni\u00f1o<\/p>\n
The good news: El Ni\u00f1o can be forecast months in advance. That gives humanitarian agencies a rare head start, and they’re using it.<\/p>\n
UN News\/Daniel Dickinson
\n A farmer in Madagascar shows an app which helps him to prepare for the onset of extreme weather patterns. <\/p>\n
Moving money before the crisis, not after. Between 2023 and 2025, early \u201canticipatory action\u201d funding reached over three million people across southern Africa and 5.5 million across eastern Africa; cash and support delivered before disaster struck, not during it.Getting farmers ready to survive a bad season. In Madagascar, families who received cash transfers and drought-resistant seeds ahead of time ate noticeably better than those who didn’t.Building better early-warning systems. In Zambia, the Government and international partners are investing in stronger weather-monitoring infrastructure to catch risks sooner.Launching a joint appeal to protect the most exposed. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Food Programme (WFP) are aiming to reach 8.8 million people across 22 high-risk countries with cash aid, flood- and drought-resistant farming support, and livestock protection.<\/p>\n