AI wants rich countries to pay for climate change disasters in Africa

Daoud noted that adaptation may cost USD 30 to 50 billion per year in sub-Saharan Africa alone and called on International financial institutions to ensure equitable distribution of the money to African countries based on need.

"African people have contributed the least to climate change, yet from Somalia to Senegal, Chad to Madagascar, we are suffering a terrible toll of this global emergency which has driven millions of people from their homes. It's time for the countries who caused all this devastation to pay up so African people can adapt to the climate change catastrophe," she said.

AI research shows that in every corner of Africa, drought, floods, storms or heat are displacing people within countries and across borders, resulting in human rights violations including loss of shelter, disrupted access to food, health care, and education, plus the risk of gender-based violence and even death.

Daoud said while African governments are responsible for protecting human rights during this crisis, they cannot adequately do so unless richer countries provide the funds.

She regretted that in Somalia alone, more than a million people have been displaced by drought and recurrent floods which have decimated farms, killed livestock, and destroyed houses, forcing communities already vulnerable from decades of civil war to flee to camps for internally displaced persons or to Kenya and Ethiopia.

Daoud observed that in coastal Senegal, rising seas have destroyed entire villages, forcing thousands of people inland where they suffer lack of jobs and shelter without adequate support.

In Chad, rising temperatures have pushed livestock herders to the country's southern agricultural regions to find grazing land and water, leading to deadly clashes with farmers in the absence of effective conflict management and support for both groups.

"A six-year drought in southern Madagascar has forced more than 56,000 Antandroy people off their ancestral lands to search for new land to settle, only to face a host of human rights violations in other parts of the country. People left behind struggle for food, water, and health care," she said.

She regretted that successive droughts in southern Africa have pushed people to the edge while in Angola, hunger has forced mostly women and children to migrate to Namibia in search of food, raising the risk of exploitation, trafficking, gender-based violence, and disrupted education.  

Daoud warned that in Namibia, half the population is food insecure, and the government has declared a drought state of emergency, as have the governments of Lesotho, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. None of these countries have the money to address the drought.

"Across Africa, the worst effects of climate change are already here. Extreme droughts, floods, storms, and heat are destroying livelihoods and local economies and forcing more and more people to flee their homes. In every instance Amnesty International has researched, national governments do not have the resources to properly respond. The countries that caused these rapidly escalating unnatural disasters must foot the bill to address them," said Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty International Regional Director for East and Southern Africa.

Chagutah emphasized that mobilising and providing the dollars needed is only the first step toward addressing the worst effects of climate change in Africa.