Climate-related disasters have in recent years considerably worsened the forced displacement of populations in Africa, which is already massive due to violence and conflict, said the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

According to Congolese diplomat Raouf Mazou, a UNHCR assistant, climate-related disasters can aggravate these conflicts in a kind of infernal cycle.

The assistant high commissioner was speaking as part of an extraordinary summit in Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea, which runs from Friday until today, where the African Union (AU) is trying, together with the United Nations (UN), other actors and donors, to prevent the worsening of humanitarian crises on the continent, which are fueled, inter alia, by the impact of climate change and the expansion of terrorist groups.

Raouf Mazou said that the African continent is currently facing natural disasters and conflicts that are causing population displacement of "unprecedented magnitude."

In 2021, according to a report by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC), 22.3 million people will be internally displaced due to climate-related disasters worldwide, compared to 14.4 million displaced by conflict and violence.

Floods and droughts are becoming "more frequent and intense and severely affecting countries like Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, and South Sudan," the high commissioner's assistant said, noting that climate change-related disasters risk not only worsening poverty, hunger, and access to natural resources like water, but also increasing instability and violence.

The situation is currently in the far north of Cameroon, where pastoralists, fishermen, and farmers have clashed over access to scarce water resources, forcing the displacement of at least 100,000 people, as well as in Mozambique, with cyclones hitting the country, while increasing violence and unrest in the north has displaced hundreds of thousands of people.

The Congolese diplomat noted that the Sahel is on the front line of the climate crisis, with temperatures rising 1.5 times faster than the global average, which only exacerbates conflicts over limited resources, making life even more difficult for those who have been forced to flee their homes.

Raouf Mazou also pointed out that many of the countries most exposed to the effects of climate change are already hosting large numbers of refugees and IDPs, so "without further investment to mitigate future protection needs and prevent new waves of displacement due to climate change, the situation will only get worse."

Regarding the impact of the war in Ukraine on food security in Africa, the UNHCR assistant pointed to rising prices and reduced food aid, consequences that will "exacerbate the vulnerability of refugees and other forcibly displaced populations and increase the risk of intercommunal tensions."

"Millions of uprooted families across Africa are at greater risk of starvation as food rations dwindle due to insufficient humanitarian funding," the diploma warned, adding that refugees in Mozambique and Zambia are already feeling further cuts in food aid, a situation that will also affect Sudan next month, among other countries.

Source: Lusa