The floods that have affected West and Central Africa since the summer have forced more than 3.5 million people from their homes, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announced yesterday.

UNHCR spokesperson Olga Sarrado explained this Friday, quoted by Lusa, that this exodus is further proof that "the link between forced displacement and the climate crisis is increasingly clear and growing" in a situation of "general deterioration" that only "aggravates the underlying challenges faced by the affected countries."

"We are witnessing the worst drought in 40 years in the Horn of Africa, which is now under the threat of famine," while humanitarian operations are "chronically and dangerously underfunded," he said, noting that at most they have received half of the funds requested for aid to Niger.

The situation has been especially alarming in Nigeria, where torrential rains, the worst recorded in the last decade, have left 1.3 million people displaced and some 2.8 million affected, especially in the northeastern parts of the country, notably in the states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe.

In Chad and Cameroon, more than a million people have been affected, particularly in the south of the country, where the Chari and Logone rivers have flooded entire villages.

Add to this the impact in the Central Sahel region, specifically in Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, where more than a million hectares of crops have been destroyed and more than half a million people (about 375,000 in Burkina alone) have been forced to flee their homes.

In countries like Chad and Burkina Faso, the percentage of funding was just over 40%. The aid received by Nigeria, despite the gravity of the situation, does not even reach this percentage (39%), according to Sarrado's estimates.

In West and Central Africa severe flooding then resulted in mortality and forced migration due to loss of shelter, farmland and livestock, while extreme weather impairs water and food supplies, increasing food insecurity and malnutrition, which causes 1.7 million deaths annually in Africa.

Changes in the ecology of vectors, caused by flooding and damage to environmental hygiene, have also led to increases in malaria, dengue, Ebola virus and other infectious diseases throughout sub-Saharan Africa.

In total, the climate crisis is estimated to have destroyed one-fifth of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the countries most vulnerable to climate shocks.