Three out of every four people displaced this year by conflicts live in countries with high exposure to climate-related riskssuch as Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Mali and Senegal, according to a study published this Monday by the UN.
In the first six months of this year, 117 million people had been displaced by war, violence and persecution. Of these, three out of four – 75% – live in countries that face high to extreme exposure to climate-related risks, says UNHCR in the document.
Over the past 10 years, climate-related disasters have caused around 250 million internal displacements – the equivalent of around 70 thousand trips per day.
“Be it floods that devastate the South Sudan and Brazil, record heat in Kenya and Pakistan or water shortages in Chad and Ethiopia, the Extreme weather is pushing already fragile communities to the limit“, he emphasizes.
For the High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, the extreme climate is putting the safety of people at risk and disrupting their access to essential services, such as means of subsistence and housing, thus forcing them to move, many of whom had already done so due to episodes of violence.
On the other hand, since April 2023, around 1.3 million refugees who have fled Sudan – due to the start of the current civil war – sought refuge in South Sudan and Chad, two countries among the least equipped and prepared to deal with the growing climate emergency, he lamented.
Another alarming fact from this investigation is the fact that “three quarters of African land is deteriorating and more than half of the continent’s refugee camps [africano] be located in areas under severe environmental stress”.