Disastrous Climate Change for Africa.

The torrential rains that hit East Africa since October, and killed more than 300 people, were “up to twice as intense” due to climate change caused by human activity, according to a scientific study published today.

The bad weather that hit Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia between October and December “was one of the most intense ever recorded in the region", according to World Weather Attribution (WWA), a global network of scientists that analyzes extreme weather phenomena in real time.

For WWA investigators;

“climate change contributed to the event and as the planet continues to warm, intense rains like these will be more frequent in East Africa”.

The WWA report draws attention to;

“urgent need to phase out fossil fuels and reduce emissions to zero.”

Researchers note, however, that there are still “uncertainties" regarding the "exact contribution” of global warming.

The Horn of Africa is one of the regions most vulnerable to climate change and extreme weather events are increasingly frequent and intense.

According to the WWA study, population vulnerability also plays a “big role", then;

"Many communities were already suffering from a three-year drought caused by climate change, which resulted in animal deaths, crop failures and food insecurity".

Torrential rains displaced more than two million people in East Africa, almost half of whom were in Somalia alone.

The rains killed at least 57 people in Ethiopia, more than a hundred in Somalia and at least 165 in Kenya.

At least 23 people also died from cholera in a region of eastern Ethiopia affected by severe flooding.

The El Niño phenomenon, generally associated with rising temperatures, droughts in some parts of the world and heavy rains in others, is expected to continue until April.

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