Climate change: A threat to Somali people

The problem of climate change is a big problem in Somalia; its effects can be felt all throughout the country, and in certain areas of the country, Somalis have lost all they own as a result of persistent drought. In Somalia, pastoralists make up around sixty percent of the population, which means that sixty percent of the country’s population is impacted by the continuing drought situation.

As a result of the drought, many rural communities have now been abandoned by its former residents, who have moved elsewhere in search of new life. There are now urban displacement camps in every major city in Somalia, and they are packed with people who fled their rural communities.

It is stated that Somalia is the nation in the world that is second most susceptible to the effects of climate change. The nation is presently on the verge of experiencing a famine. It has not rained throughout any of the last four rainy seasons, which is a climate phenomenon that has not occurred in at least the last 40 years. The situation is exceedingly precarious.

Somalia has seen a threefold increase in severe climatic events since 1990, said Christophe Hodder, the United Nations’ climate expert for Somalia, with three major droughts since 2010, recurring flooding and more regular locust swarms that destroy crops. By 2080, it’s expected temperatures will rise by 3.4 degrees Celsius, with an additional 152 very hot days per year — where the maximum temperatures will surpass 35 degrees Celsius. On the issue of water, It’s also expected that water availability will decline by half during that time.    

During the International Conference on Climate Change (COP27) in Egypt, President Hassan focused on how climate change has affected the world and the resulting humanitarian conditions of the Somali people. they are facing.

He pointed out the importance of the countries participating in this meeting to come up with plans based on cooperation that lead to dealing with the effects of climate change on the world, and he stressed the need for relief for the Somali people affected by the drought.

“This year we are in more than eight hundred million people in Africa have a lack of food. In Somalia, more than 7 million people cannot meet their basic food needs and are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. We need to ask ourselves why? The answer is climate change and conflict”.

According to the President, Somalia is vulnerable to climate change, said that in order to deal with the strong impact of this, the Somali Government created the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, and also launched an initiative to reforest Somalia.

“Somalia is facing a humanitarian crisis that we are trying to deal with as much as we can, as a result of frequent droughts. We also experienced severe floods that destroyed our economic infrastructure, the best agricultural land and the livelihood of our community. Our people are not able to grow crops because of the drought”.

The current administration has a ministry that is reserved for issues on climate change which shows how committed his Government is on matters of draughts, the ministry of Environment has already embarked on ambitious project to plant trees in the country.

On his part, the president pointed out the importance of trees to our country which has been plagued by repeated droughts, which has had a strong impact on the difficult circumstances the country has been through, which has caused severe erosion that has affected life and the environment.

“The destruction that happened in the country did not only affect the people, but it caused severe problems in the Somali environment, we lost the animals and plants that were famous in our country. The reconstruction of the government should go hand in hand with the regeneration of the environment and the development of public awareness about the care. environment.”

The President of the Republic instructed the government agencies to take the lead in this plan and plant trees in their workplaces. with the environment prepared by the government.

President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has asked the Banadir Regional Government and the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change of the Federal Government of Somalia to plant 100,000 trees in the capital in the next two months of the year in order to go ahead with the reforestation of state capitals and all districts and regions of the country.