Southern Africa countries at risk of flooding after El Nino droughts

The UN has warned that southern African countries are at risk of another year of food shortages as the drought-hit region is expected to be hit by above-average rainfall likely to trigger floods.

#ElNino’s impact on southern Africa, and what a #LaNina could mean for the region. npratc interviews GoddardLisa: https://t.co/hKPoeFsOIk

— IRI (@climatesociety) July 29, 2016

This comes even as the region still reels from the effects of the El Nino weather phenomenon which has devastated crops leaving about 18 million people in need of food aid, according to the World Food Programme.

Weather experts forecast that the region will this year experience more rainfall than normal due to an extreme weather pattern known as La Nina. But this is still good news to the farmers, as more average rainfall normally means good harvest.

La Nina is characterized by flooding and waterlogging. To ensure farmers benefit from the rains, the UN officials said farmers needed to plant early to avoid the floods, although most of them have little or no capital to buy farm inputs, having been hit by two successive droughts.