A potent El Nino has decimated the agriculture sector in Ethiopia and left more than 10 million of the country’s residents at risk of going hungry, a United Nations agency warned Monday.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) launched an urgent appeal for $13 million to help roughly 600,000 of the Ethiopian farmers who have been hit the hardest by the devastating crop and livestock losses brought on by one of the country’s worst droughts in history.

According to the FAO, the number of Ethiopians in need of humanitarian aid has tripled since January 2015, and about 10.2 million of them are currently food insecure. UNICEF warned last month that additional 6 million Ethiopians could need food assistance by the end of the year.

The FAO said the $13 million is needed by the end of the month to help ensure that farmers will be able to produce food during Ethiopia’s main growing season, when up to 85 percent of the nation’s total food supply is generated. Planting for an earlier rainy season was already delayed.

“We’re expecting that needs will be particularly high during the next few weeks,” Amadou Allahoury Diallo, the FAO’s country representative in Ethiopia, said in a statement. “So it’s critical that we’re able to respond quickly and robustly to reboot agriculture now before the drought further decimates the food security and livelihoods of millions.”

Ethiopia is one of several African nations that has been affected by an abnormally strong El Nino, a weather pattern known for producing extreme weather throughout the globe.

In a video released by the FAO on Monday, the organization’s Response Team Leader Rosanne Marchesich said some parts of Ethiopia have seen crop and livestock losses of 50 to 90 percent.

The eastern part of the country has witnessed “complete destruction,” she said.

In a news release, the FAO added “hundreds of thousands of livestock” in Ethiopia have died from a lack of water, feed shortages or poor grazing resources, and that die-off has fueled declines in milk and meat availability. Some farming families were forced to sell their final agricultural assets after last year’s losses, and others have been eaten planting seeds as food.

The organization said malnutrition is a growing concern.

The FAO added the $13 million will be used to supply feed and clean water to herding households, as well as safe water and seed support to farmers planning to grow crops.