"60 Million People in Sub-Saharan Africa Risk Famine: Red Cross"

"Some 60 million people across sub-Saharan Africa are already going hungry and the situation could deteriorate dramatically as climate phenomena hike the risk of drought, the Red Cross said Monday.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) warned that a series of climatic shocks in 2014 and 2015 had decimated harvests and left many people in Gambia, Mauritania, Malawi, Namibia, Senegal and Zimbabwe dependent on food aid to survive.

Floods and drought had dramatically reduced maize production, the regional staple, in southern Africa, while the region was also hit by erratic rainfall, failed crops and violence.

Yet the worst is yet to come, IFRC warned, pointing to the strengthening of the El Nino climate phenomenon, which comes with warming sea surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific, causing heavy rains in some parts of the world and drought elsewhere."

AFP had the story October 5, 2015.