from MARIA MACHARIA in Nairobi, Kenya
Kenya Bureau
NAIROBI, (CAJ News) – THE tour of Africa by the United Nations’s top envoy on humanitarian issues, to discuss the climate change crisis, is timely as the crisis deepens in some countries in recent weeks.
Joyce Msuya, the Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, is assessing Botswana, Kenya, Mozambique and Tanzania.
Africa is home to 27 of the world’s 40 countries most vulnerable to climate change but the continent receives just a fraction of financing meant to help vulnerable communities adapt.
“As we count down to COP28 next month, we must do all we can to keep Africa’s people at the heart of the global conversation over climate shocks and solutions,” Msuya said.
“The threat of El Niño and the coming cyclone season underscores what’s at stake for southern and eastern Africa.”
The El Niño season began in June 2023 and is expected to continue until at least February 2024. East African country, Kenya, is in one of the regions where flooding has historically been higher during this climatic phenomenon.
During the previous El Niño (2019), severe flooding and massive landslides led to the destruction of property and infrastructure, crop and livestock losses, and increased epidemics, particularly of cholera, affecting more than 330 000 people in the country.
It resulted in the displacement of 160 000 people.
East Africa is emerging from a drought emergency, described as the worst in 40 years.
In Southern Africa, some countries have in recent days experienced some excessively high temperatures.
These were reported in Botswana and Namibia but temperatures have also been soaring in South Africa.
– CAJ News