The withered carcasses of livestock are reminders that drought has descended yet again in northern Kenya, the latest in a series of climate shocks rippling through the Horn of Africa.
As world leaders address a global climate summit in Glasgow, pastoralists watch their beloved animals suffer from lack of water and food. Yusuf Abdullahi says he has lost 40 goats.
“If they die, we all die,” he says.
Herders supply water from a borehole to give to their camels near Kuruti, in Garissa County, Kenya Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2021. As world leaders address a global climate summit in Britain, drought has descended yet again in northern Kenya, the latest in a series of climate shocks rippling through the Horn of Africa.
Kenya’s government has declared a national disaster in 10 of its 47 counties. The United Nations says more than 2 million people are severely food insecure. And with people trekking farther in search of food and water, observers warn that tensions among communities could sharpen.
Wildlife have begun to die, too, says the chair of the Subuli Wildlife Conservancy, Mohamed Sharmarke.
“The heat on the ground tells you the sign of starvation we’re facing,” he says.
The daughter of a herder family stands in the doorway of their hut near Kuruti, in Garissa County, Kenya Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2021. As world leaders address a global climate summit in Britain, drought has descended yet again in northern Kenya, the latest in a series of climate shocks rippling through the Horn of Africa.
The daughter of a herder family stands in the doorway of their hut near Kuruti, in Garissa County, Kenya.
Rangers from the Sabuli Wildlife Conservancy supply water from a tanker for wild animals in the conservancy in Wajir County, Kenya Tuesday, Oct. 26, 2021. As world leaders address a global climate summit in Britain, drought has descended yet again in northern Kenya, the latest in a series of climate shocks rippling through the Horn of Africa.
Experts warn that such climate shocks will become more common across Africa, which contributes the least to global warming, but will suffer from it most.
“We do not have a spare planet in which we will seek refuge once we have succeeded in destroying this one,” the executive director of East Africa’s Intergovernmental Authority on Development, Workneh Gebeyehu, said last month while opening a regional early warning climate center in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi.
