Last month, Kenya's President William Ruto announced that the El Niño climate phenomenon [8], which has historically brought devastating flooding to the country, would not occur this year [9], contradicting weeks of warnings from meteorologists. Today, across the country, [10]at least 60 people [11] have died, over 50,000 more [10] have been displaced, and 221 acres of farmland [13] are under water as heavy rains associated with El Niño lash the region [14]. The impact has been acutely felt in the northeast, where [12]entire towns have been submerged [12]. And it could be even worse in neighboring Somalia, where nearly 1.2 million people have been affected, prompting the country [15]to declare an emergency [15] and the UN's emergency aid coordination body, OCHA, to release $25 million [19] to help it prepare for worse to come. The World Meteorological Organization predicts that this El Niño will last until at least April 2024 [16], and the Food and Agriculture Organization in Somalia is projecting a once-in-a-century magnitude flood event.
From The New Humanitarian [20], Nov. 10. With update [21], Nov. 24.
See our last report on this year's El Niño [22] system, and the growing extreme weather [23] phenomenon.
