{"id":742,"date":"2016-05-31T17:52:49","date_gmt":"2016-05-31T16:52:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/combonimission.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=742"},"modified":"2016-05-31T18:15:07","modified_gmt":"2016-05-31T17:15:07","slug":"742","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/2016\/05\/31\/742\/","title":{"rendered":"El Ni\u00f1o: A New Threat to Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Certain\u00a0regions in the eastern and southern part of the continent are facing\u00a0the devastating impact of El Ni\u00f1o.<\/em><\/p>\n

For months now, international organisations working in the field of\u00a0food safety \u2013 in particular those linked to the UN, such as the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) \u2013 have warned of the impact of El Ni\u00f1o on crop and livestock production prospects in Southern Africa.<\/p>\n

New figures from the UN\u2019s World Food Programme indicate that\u00a040 million people in rural areas and 9 million people in urban centres \u2013\u00a0those who live in the drought-affected parts of Zimbabwe, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia, Malawi and Swaziland\u00a0\u2013\u00a0will need food assistance in the next year. In addition, the UN\u2019s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports\u00a0that 10 million people need food in Ethiopia.<\/p>\n

The 2015-2016 manifestation of the El Ni\u00f1o weather phenomenon was one of the strongest in the past 50 years. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), between October 2015 and January 2016, El Ni\u00f1o caused the lowest recorded rainfall in at least 35 years\u00a0across many regions of southern Africa. El Ni\u00f1o\u2019s impact on agriculture is severe. Poor rainfall, combined with excessive temperatures, has created conditions that are unfavourable for crop growth, leading to an\u00a0increase in the price of basic foodstuffs. In February 2016, the cost of maize, the regional staple in Malawi, was 73% higher than average. On April\u00a017th<\/sup>, the Malawi government was forced to declare a ‘State of Emergency’ due to food shortages. The projected drop in maize harvested is estimated at 12% lower than\u00a0last\u2019s year output and 33% lower than the average of the last five years. In February, the average price of food products in Mozambique was 50% higher than that of 2015.<\/p>\n

In several cases, El Ni\u00f1o hit\u00a0countries like Somalia, which were already in difficulties for a number of reasons, including internal conflicts or long-term political crises. On\u00a026th<\/sup>\u00a0April, a group of non-governmental organisations declared Somalia at risk from famine. But even countries which appeared\u00a0to be more stable, like Ethiopia and South Africa, felt the consequences of El Ni\u00f1o. In Ethiopia, crop production between November 2015 and January 2016 dropped by 50\u201390% in some areas\u00a0and failed completely in others. The challenges resulting from El Ni\u00f1o could last for up to two years, and therefore, alongside\u00a0crop failures and livestock losses, Africa will also have to face the depletion of food supplies.<\/p>\n

Experts do not predict a rosy future. According to Nick Nuttall, press officer of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), emergencies of this kind will be frequent in future due to the gradual increase in the global temperature \u2013\u00a0a phenomenon more evident in Africa than in other areas of the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Certain\u00a0regions in the eastern and southern part of the continent are facing\u00a0the devastating impact of El Ni\u00f1o. For months now, international organisations working in the field of\u00a0food safety \u2013 in particular those linked to the UN, such as the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) \u2013 have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}