Powerful El Niño could push 49 million more people into acute hunger, UN agency warns.

The World Food Programme (WFP) has warned that a powerful El Niño weather event has an 81% chance of occurring, potentially pushing an additional nearly 49 million people into acute food insecurity by the end of next year. This would bring the total to 274 million people, a 22% increase. The WFP report highlights Central America and Southern Africa as potentially hardest-hit regions, with significant impacts also projected across South and Southeast Asia due to drought risks, uneven monsoons, and localized flooding disrupting agricultural production.