A rapidly intensifying El Niño weather pattern could bring severe flooding, disease and food shortages to millions of people across East Africa and Asia, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) has warned. The US Climate Prediction Center estimates an 81 percent chance the event will become one of the most powerful since 1950, likely peaking between October and December, with countries including Kenya, Somalia, Uganda, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan identified as most at risk. The World Bank has cautioned that rice yields could fall by up to half in the worst-affected areas, and aid organisations are urging donors to fund preventive measures now, warning that communities already weakened by drought, conflict and shrinking aid budgets have little capacity to absorb another crisis.