Flooding caused by El Nino could displace more than 100,000 people in Ethiopia, where more than 8 million people face a food crisis because of the worst drought since an infamous 1984 famine, the United Nations warned Monday. Failed rains during both the spring and summer have created food and water shortages in the East African country. The government and aid agencies say Ethiopia needs $600 million to address the crisis. "El Nino has a dual impact on Ethiopia, causing drought in the north, central, and eastern parts of the country, and flooding in south and southeastern areas," the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a report. "At least 210,600 people are expected to be affected by flooding, and at least 105,300 people risk displacement." Aid agencies say the number of people needing assistance in Ethiopia could rise to 15 million by early next year, with 350,000 children expected to require treatment for acute malnutrition by the end of 2015. More than 600,000 tons of wheat purchased by the Ethiopian government is expected to arrive in neighboring Djibouti this week, the United Nations said. Ethiopia, which saw a 1984 famine kill hundreds of thousands of people, now has one of the world's fastest growing economies and is far better equipped to deal with a new crisis, experts say. The El Nino weather phenomenon, marked by warming sea-surface temperatures in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, causes extremes such as hot weather in some regions and heavy rains and flooding in others. Meteorologists expect El Nino to peak between October and January and to be one of the strongest on record.
