The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) estimates that the floods that have been ravaging central and western Africa since this summer have forced more than 3.5 million people to flee their homes, especially in Nigeria.
The torrential rains in this country, the worst recorded in the last decade, have left 1.3 million people displaced and some 2.8 million affected, especially in the northeastern regions of the country such as the states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe.
The situation has also become critical in Chad and Cameroon, where more than one million people have been affected, particularly in the south of the country, where the overflowing of the Chari and Logone rivers have submerged entire populations in both countries.
To this must be added the impact in the Central Sahel region, specifically in Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, where more than one million hectares of crops have been destroyed and more than half a million people (some 375,000 in Burkina alone) have been forced to flee their homes.
UNHCR spokesperson Olga Sarrado explained Friday that this exodus is a further demonstration that «the link between forced displacement and the climate crisis is increasingly clear and growing» within a situation of «general deterioration» that only «exacerbates the underlying challenges facing 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,» according to the spokeswoman, who recalled that, at most, they have managed to receive half of the funds requested for aid to Niger.
In countries such as Chad and Burkina Faso, the percentage of funding has barely exceeded 40 percent. The aid received by Nigeria, despite the gravity of the situation, does not even reach this percentage (39 percent), according to Sarrado’s estimates.
