Today's Edition
SHAABAN BILAL (CAIRO)
The Horn of Africa, contributing minimally to global emissions, is disproportionately impacted by climate change, threatening famine for 22 million people. This region faces varied climate change effects, including erratic rainfall, temperature spikes, and severe droughts, impacting millions, including refugees and internally displaced persons.
The UN World Food Programme reports that climate-induced drought has escalated the famine threat in the Horn of Africa to over 22 million people. The 2023 Global Report on Internal Displacement highlights over 7.5 million cases of internal displacement in Africa due to disasters. The Horn of Africa’s most severe consequence of climate change is the current drought, the worst in 40 years, as per the UN.
This has led to mass livestock deaths, crop destruction, and famine-like conditions in Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia, causing over a million people to seek water and food, leading to internal displacement of around two million in Ethiopia and Somalia. Millions have also fled from Somalia to drought-stricken areas in Kenya and Ethiopia, with 3.3 million more affected, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
Somalia, severely affected by climate change, faces a situation where nearly half its population requires humanitarian aid, with 8.3 million people impacted by drought. Drought has also heightened tribal conflicts over resources in Somalia. In Kenya, climate change has quadrupled the need for assistance in under two years, with 3.1 million facing food insecurity.
Ethiopia is experiencing its worst drought since 1981, leaving 7.2 million hungry daily and causing the death of over one million cattle. The UN Population Fund reports that climate change has intensified mass displacement and worsened the humanitarian crisis in Ethiopia, affecting nearly 8 million and displacing over 286,000.
A recent study suggests the drought’s severity is exacerbated by greenhouse gas emissions, devastating agriculture and livestock, the primary livelihood for over half the region’s population.
The UN links climate change to increased terrorism rates in Africa, especially in the Horn of Africa, where natural disasters create competition for dwindling resources among terrorist groups. A World Bank report predicts that by 2050, up to 86 million Africans could migrate within their countries due to climate change, with West Africa and the Lake Victoria Basin likely to become climate migration hotspots by 2030.
