Several African countries have been affected by flooding this year unleashing an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. According to a report by scientists on the World Weather Attribution (WWA), global warming is the reason for the intensified rainy season in many African countries in 2024.
The WWA network said that human-driven climate change, caused by the use of fossil fuels had made seasonal downpours across the Niger and Lake Chad basins 5-20 percent worse this year.
“These results are incredibly concerning,” said Izidine Pinto, a researcher at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute and one of the study’s authors.
He pointed out that “spells of heavy summer rainfall” had become the “new normal” in Sudan, Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon and Chad.
“With every fraction of a degree of warming, the risk of extreme floods will keep increasing,” Pinto added, calling for the United Nations COP29 climate summit to “accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels” when it meets in Azerbaijan next month.
Floods killed about 1,500 people and displaced more than one million in West and Central Africa this year, according to UN aid agency OCHA. The rains also overwhelmed dams in Nigeria and Sudan.
Kenya suffered the loss of more than 210 lives as a result of the heavy rainfall triggering the policy to demolish houses built close to the riverbanks, further worsening the humanitarian crisis.
A dam burst in Maiduguri, Borno State, northeastern Nigeria, in mid-September 2024 after heavy rains, causing severe flooding. The disaster resulted in the deaths of at least 37 people and displaced over 200,000 residents. The floodwaters affected more than 1.7 million people across 31 states in Nigeria, leading to widespread destruction of homes and farmland.
The WWA report warns that intense downpours, like those in Sudan, could occur yearly by the 2050s if global temperatures rise by 2°C above pre-industrial levels. Scientists found that monthlong rains in Sudan, worsened by climate change, have intensified, especially affecting displaced populations.
Though Africa contributes little to global carbon emissions, it’s disproportionately impacted by extreme weather.
Researchers emphasize the need for improved dam maintenance and early warning systems. “This will keep worsening if fossil fuel use continues,” warned Clair Barnes from the Centre for Environmental Policy.
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