English
Reports suggest that more than 30 million people will be affected by the current El Nino weather pattern in southern Africa.
The current El Nino weather phenomenon have been steadily gaining its strength since March, last year and is expected to have even more devastating effects, the longer it lasts. The phenomenon already had drought effects on the current weather systems.
El Nino phenomenons are caused a warming in sea surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific, which then leads to unusually heavy rains in some parts of the world and drought elsewhere.
Experts say that various factors have contributed to Africa’s food security issues in recent years. It is expected that farmers will have an even harder time this year, as many are still attempting to recover from the effects of 2015.
South African maize production already showed a 30% drop, due to the drought and ongoing El Nino.
It is expected that the worst affected countries in the southern Africa region will be Zimbabwe, Angola, South Africa, Botswana, Swaziland, Zambia, Mozambique and Lesotho.
Read the News24 article here.
