in Somaliland, the already visible consequences of global warming

For the inhabitants of Somaliland, no need for COP26 to experience the consequences of climate change. This small independent country in the Horn of Africa is a region particularly affected by global warming. In this remote corner, water is scarce and famine is looming. Added to this is the plague of locusts which devastate everything in their path and force people to leave their homes.

The villagers of the commune of Suuqsade, in the heart of Somaliland, all tell it: a locust attack in a field is scary. When they arrive, the insects eat all the food. A cloud of locusts that even hides the sun, say the inhabitants.

Locust attacks have always existed except now there are every year, according to them. They come on top of climate change, according to Abdurahman, the head of the NGO Care in the region. “The main problem is that the climate is changing. We have small rains, repeated droughts and it transforms the life of the pastoralists. People here depend on livestock and when there is no rain but droughts, it kills livestock “, he explains.

In the next room, the women say that with the repeated locust invasions and the lack of water, there are no more reserves and no more money to buy food. As a result, no one has enough to eat. “All of this makes us poorer. Most of the people in this village eat only once a day, either breakfast or lunch or dinner.”, says one of them.

A sign that the situation is not getting better: in this usually rainy month of November, there is not a drop of water in sight. Another effect of these consecutive crises: families no longer have the means to send all their children to school. “We don’t have enough money to pay the tuition fees of about ten dollars per month per student”, tells a group of mothers. “When it is necessary to choose, it is the little girls who are deprived in priority of education and who suddenly find themselves in the fields to work with their mothers.” Women and girls penalized again and again because the lack of rainfall forces them to walk further and further to find drinking water.