Kristin Palitza Nov 15, 2021
© Kate Bartlett/dpa
Climate change is abstract to many, but not those living in large swathes of Africa. Five of the 10 countries most affected by climate change are there, and many of their residents are fighting for their lives amid worsening storms, floods and drought.
Blantyre, Malawi/Maputo (dpa) - The night when her husband died in the floodwaters has been etched into her memory, says Malita Tembo.
The members of the family were torn out of their sleep when the wall of their clay hut in the village of Nyachikadza, in southern Malawi, caved in. They were pelted by rain from a storm, which was later given the name Idai, and which UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called "one of the worst weather-related catastrophes in the history of Africa."
It only took a couple of hours in March 2019 for Idai to destroy the village and large areas in Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. Bringing extreme rains and wind gusts of up to 195 kilometres per hour (km/h), the World Bank estimated it wreaked damages of 2 billion dollars. More than 3 million people were affected; more than 1,000 died.
"It was a night full of screams, as one house fell after the other," says Tembo through tears.
The government eventually set her up with a tent, a parcel of land, two sacks of grain and fertilizer, but that wasn't enough to restart. Now the 27-year-old mother of two small children fights for survival every day.
"We are now struggling to eke out a living," she says.
Five of the 10 countries most affected by climate change are in Africa, according to the environmental organization Germanwatch. Mozambique, in the continent's south, is the worst affected worldwide, followed by neighbouring Zimbabwe.
Malawi, to Mozambique's south, as well as Niger, in the west, and South Sudan, on the Horn of Africa, are also in the top 10.
The impact of climate change is particularly fatal for poor countries, since their governments lack the means to either prepare for catastrophes or to launch rebuilding projects. It's not uncommon for whole regions to lie in ruins for many months, if not years.
When that happens, key infrastructure like water and power supplies are disrupted. Diseases spread and ruined crops mean a cycle of hunger.
That's what happened to Francisco Joao Amade, who lost everything he owned when Idai struck his home in Macomia District, in northern Mozambique. A few weeks later, Cyclone Kenneth followed, literally ripping the roof off of his house.
Packing wind speeds of 200 km/h and flood surges 2.5 metres high, it also brought destruction to Tanzania and the Comoros.
Since then, Amade has been living with his wife, three children and multiple relatives in a narrow room in a small hut that he set up out of wreckage. A smallholder, he has replanted some banana stands and sugar cane, but only earns enough to get a few sacks of rice, some oil and soap for his family.
According to the World Meteorological Organization, about 118 million people will experience drought, flooding and extreme heat in Africa through 2030. The continent is heating up faster and worse than the global average, even though the 54 countries there put out less than 4 per cent of all greenhouse gases globally.
The combination of climate change and the coronavirus pandemic has already brought Malawi to its knees, warned President Lazarus Chakwera ahead of the COP26 climate change conference in Scotland.
"For us in Malawi, it means urgent investments in climate change adaptation," he told state TV broadcaster MBC. He is hoping for help from the West to finance these projects.
Things aren't much better in Zimbabwe, which is also dealing with years of financial crisis.
"If climate change continues at its current rate, thousands of Zimbabweans will lose their jobs, homes or even their lives," tweeted President Emmerson Mngangagwa recently.
After Idai, the country was also hit by cyclones Eloise and Chalane. Many Zimbabweans have had to run for their life multiple times.
Enita Mauraye knows the problems. Living in the small eastern Zimbabwean city of Chimanimani, she has been living in a Red Cross tent city for two years now.
Her 5-year-old daughter disappeared in the floods Idai brought. Instead of going to school, her three surviving sons try to help her support the family by doing odd jobs. The government promised to build new homes, but that's nothing more than a promise, she says. Mauraye has given up hope of a better life.
To the north, Niger suffers alternating floods and drought. More than 210,000 people were affected a few weeks ago when the Niger River burst its banks. Half of them were children.
Abdou Aziz Soumana, a farmer who lives in Kiskisoye, near the capital, Niamey, lost his entire rice crop.
"We have no idea how we're supposed to survive," says the 54-year-old father of eight with desperation. The changes in the weather have been catastrophic, with harvests getting worse every year, he says.
"We didn't believe in climate change for a long time, but now we think that it really does exist."
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