The warning comes amid the worst flooding in a decade, which has swept through Nigeria, Chad, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali and Cameroon.
UNHCR Spokeswoman Olga Sarrado said that hundreds of people have died in Nigeria, where floodwaters in the northeast swept through internally displaced areas and host communities in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states.
Crisis, now is
Ms Sarrado added that temperatures in the Sahel are also rising 1.5 times faster than the global average:
“The climate crisis is unfolding today – destroying livelihoods, disrupting food security, exacerbating conflicts over scarce resources and driving displacement.”
More than 1.3 million people have been displaced so far in Nigeria and 2.8 million have been affected by flooding, with agricultural lands and roads submerged.
In the Central Sahel countries – Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso – above-average rains and floods have killed hundreds and thousands of people and decimated more than a million hectares of arable land.
“Countries and communities on the front lines of the climate crisis need urgent support and financing to build defenses, adapt and mitigate the most harmful consequences.”
Funded below ‘danger’
To help those most in need in West and Central Africa, UNHCR has appealed to all donors for urgent assistance, as its humanitarian activities are “dangerously and economically underfunded.” years”.
“In Chad, only 43% of the funds needed by the UNHCR in 2022 have been received. Our 2022 operations in Burkina Faso are only 42% funded. With less than two months to go, we have received 39% of the required amount in Nigeria and 53% in Niger,” Ms. Sarrado said.
Worst in 40 years
In addition to the Sahel, she reminded that we are witnessing the worst drought in 40 years and the risk of famine in the Horn of Africa, a devastating cyclone season in Mozambique and historic flooding in 4 years. consecutively in South Sudan and Sudan.
“Severe weather across the African continent in 2022 will result in hundreds of deaths and millions of displaced people,” she told journalists.
