Central American countries facing worst drought in decades: UN

More than 3.5 million people were food insecure and in need of health care and livelihood recovery support in Central American countries facing the worst drought in decades, a UN spokesman said here Friday.

El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua were experiencing their worst drought in decades due to the El Nino weather phenomenon, said Farhan Haq, the deputy UN spokesman, quoting UN agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and governments in Central America.

"Without sufficient emergency assistance, food shortfalls are expected to continue at least until September 2016," Haq said at a daily news briefing.

"Meanwhile, above-average rains in parts of South America have continued to cause flooding, and increased diseases spread by mosquitoes, including malaria, dengue, chikungunya and the Zika virus," he said.

According to assessments by the World Food Programme (WFP) and governments, more than 2 million people in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador rely on food aid to survive. Most are subsistence farmers who harvest once a year and live in the Dry Corridor running through the three countries.

At governments' request, the WFP provided food assistance in 2014 and 2015 to more than 1.2 million people in the three countries.

The WFP is concerned that from March to April, small farmers in Central America may have to drain their cash and food reserves to obtain seeds and other inputs for the first crop cycle of 2016.

The WFP initially responded with food distributions for a two-month period to 120,000 people. It now plans to launch an emergency operation to assist 1 million people, primarily by cash transfers. More nutrition interventions are planned to prevent a rise in acute malnutrition.

The WFP needs 100 million U.S. dollars to assist 1.6 million victims of drought through August in Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Haiti. Endit