Floods across sub-Saharan Africa have affected about 1.5 million people. In many cases the rains came totally unexpectedly. Ironically, in countries like Ghana, due to months of droughts, farmers were not able to produce enough crops this year. Now the harvest in the affected areas has been destroyed. Government officials and aid workers are warning of serious food shortages.

The situation in other countries could be similar. Marcus Prior is the spokesman for the world food program (WFP) in Eastern and Central Africa. From his base in Kenya’s capital Nairobi, he told VOA reporter Akwei Thompson how the WFP is handling this enormous food situation in Africa.

“Well, the World Food Program is mounting an enormous program in response to the flooding across Africa” Fortunately, he added, “much of the flooding is taking place in  countries where the WFP already has offices and food supply..but we simply do not have all the food we need given the enormity of the needs at the moment.”