El Niño poses hunger threat to millions in Central America as food stocks run dry: UN

A man arranges firewood outside his house at the drought-affected southern village of San Francisco de Coray, in the department of Valle, Honduras, August 13, 2015. Linked to the El Nino weather phenomenon, this year’s drought has hit subsistence farmers living in Central America’s “dry corridor” that runs through parts of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua, hard. The U.N. World Food Program (WFP) warned the extended dry spell, which is expected to last until March 2016, will lead to a drastically reduced harvest as drought destroys bean and maize crops, local media reported. Picture taken August 13, 2015. REUTERS/Jorge Cabrera

By Sebastien Malo

NEW YORK, November 13th, 2015 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Some 2.3 million people across Central America face severe hunger due to drought compounded by a particularly punishing El Nino weather phenomenon if they do not get help, the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) said on Thursday.

From Guatemala to Nicaragua, subsistence farmers and day laborers recovering from recent crop losses are expected to face hunger anew as one of the strongest El Ninos on record builds strength, according to the organization.

El Nino is a warming of ocean surface temperatures in the eastern and central Pacific that occurs every few years, triggering heavy rains and floods in South America and scorching weather as far as Asia and east Africa.

It is striking Central America this year and in 2016 following two years of drought and delayed rains that have killed crops and forced farmers to postpone planting.

“To continue to help them recover, WFP would need U.S. $75 million,” said Miguel Barreto, regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean, in a statement. The WFP, an agency of the United Nations, is funded through governments, private donors and other sources.

Nearly two thirds of the households in Central America’s “dry corridor” that runs through parts of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua were out of food stocks as of last spring, the WFP said in September.

It plans to help some 550,000 people in the region cope with the effects of El Nino after assisting some 200,000 people in the region last year.

“Our resources to respond are virtually depleted,” said Barreto.

Reporting by Sebastien Malo, Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst.