The UN World Food Programme warned that a rapidly developing El Niño could push about 50 million more people into acute hunger before the end of next year, on top of 225 million already facing acute food insecurity across 45 countries. The WFP said even a weaker El Niño would add more than a fifth to its current caseload, with Central and South America, the Caribbean and southern Africa likely to be worst affected and south and south east Asia facing reduced rainfall that would harm agriculture. This year’s El Niño is shaping up to be the strongest in at least 70 years, a phenomenon WFP links to amplified impacts from the climate crisis and to prospects of record global temperatures. The WFP plans early warning and “anticipatory” relief measures and has budgeted at least $80m for those efforts, but director of the climate and resilience service Richard Choularton warned that data gaps from funding cuts have hampered preparedness. Jean-Martin Bauer, the WFP’s director of food security, noted food prices were in favourable ranges at the end of 2025 though upward pressure has come from the war in the Middle East. The agency highlighted that in southern Africa the worst food security impacts will occur in the 2027 to 2028 lean season because farmers may exhaust supplies more than one season after poor rains.
