Morning Briefing

Flash floods have "worsened an already chronic humanitarian crisis caused by drought" in central Africa where aid agencies have warned that "10 million people are already facing severe food shortages, particularly in the landlocked countries of Chad and Niger, after a drought led to the failure of last year's crops," the Independent reports. "Now unusually heavy rains [in Niger] have washed away this year's crops and killed cattle in a region dependent on subsistence agriculture," and where only 40 percent of people affected by the food shortages are receiving aid, according to the agencies, including Oxfam and Save the Children.