UN seeks early action on El Niño as hunger risk threatens 50 million

UN agencies are seeking funding and coordinated preparations to protect vulnerable communities from an intensifying El Niño. UN aid chief Tom Fletcher warned that increased hunger could affect 50 million people and urged governments and financial institutions to act before the damage occurs.

At a Geneva press conference, World Meteorological Organization chief Celeste Saulo said the event could be stronger than anything recorded by monitoring systems used over the past four decades. Extreme weather was already being observed and could multiply as El Niño intensified, she said. The weather pattern is due to peak in December, but its humanitarian effects are expected to continue beyond 2027.

Fletcher said conflict, displacement, international aid cuts and higher prices for food, fuel and fertilizer were reducing countries’ capacity to cope. He said he had made $50 million available to support 11 countries, with Chad, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Somalia and South Sudan among the recipients.

The needs vary by region, Fletcher said. Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia require supplies before heavy rainfall, while southern Africa needs livestock and seeds. He called for support for livelihoods in Central America and preparations across Asia and the Pacific for cyclones, droughts and floods.

Fletcher also warned that the consequences would extend beyond the most exposed countries, causing global economic disruption and fueling further conflict, migration and displacement. He said humanitarian organizations could not handle a threat of this scale without broader support.