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(Bloomberg) — Floods across a swath of central and West Africa have displaced at least 2.9 million people, killed about 1,000 and are devastating crops in a region that\u2019s already short of food and plagued by insecurity, according to government and aid-group assessments.<\/p>\n
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The heavy rains in the western half of the semi-arid Sahel zone, which borders the southern Sahara Desert from Africa\u2019s west to east coasts, are likely to persist, according to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network. Researchers blame this year\u2019s deluge, which coincides with a crucial crop season, on global warming, saying that rising temperatures are seeing the air store more water vapor. Chad, Mali, Niger and Nigeria are affected.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe dramatic flooding that we\u2019re currently seeing in West Africa coincides with the monsoon season,\u201d said Benjamin Sultan, a researcher at the French government\u2019s Research Institute for Sustainable Development who is working on climate change with a focus on West Africa. \u201cIt\u2019s becoming more and more intense every year, causing deadly floods as we\u2019re seeing in the Sahel.\u201d<\/p>\n
The floods are hitting a region that\u2019s among the least prepared globally for climate-related disasters, with little money available to buffer infrastructure against adverse weather. Chad ranks last in an index of 187 countries assessed by the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative for climate-change vulnerability, Mali 180th, Niger 176th and Nigeria 152nd.<\/p>\n
Record Hunger<\/p>\n
In Chad, the floods have swept across almost the entire country, resulting in at least 340 deaths and rendering 1.5 million homeless, according to the government. They\u2019ve destroyed about 160,000 dwellings, submerged 260,000 hectares (642,470 acres) and drowned 60,000 livestock.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith flooded farmland and drowned livestock, there will be a lot less food available now and in the future in a country where 3.4 million people already face acute hunger \u2013 the highest level of food insecurity ever recorded in Chad,\u201d Jens Laerke, a United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs spokesman, told a UN press briefing last week.<\/p>\n
Neighboring Niger is also hard-hit \u2014 with 400,000 made homeless and 273 killed \u2014 while Mali has recorded 62 deaths and 345,000 people are without shelter, according to the governments and aid groups working in the two nations. Food prices are rising in Niger as transport routes to markets become impassable.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never seen rains like this,\u201d said Mamadou Tidiani, a farmer with seven children in Niger\u2019s country\u2019s Agadez region. \u201cIt\u2019s too soon to say how much of the harvest that was destroyed, but I fear it will be bad.\u201d<\/p>\n
Northern Nigeria hasn\u2019t been spared either with floods displacing more than 610,000 and killing 201, according to the World Health Organization.<\/p>\n
Tahir Hamid Nguilin, Chad\u2019s finance minister and chairman of the flooding prevention committee, has said the situation is unprecedented, especially in the northern part of the country, which is largely desert. The floods have affected production of millet, corn, sorghum and rice.<\/p>\n
A large part of the Sahara will get more than 500% of its normal September rainfall, according to Severe Weather Europe, a blog that publishes meteorological forecasts. The International Rescue Group described the floods across the region as the worst in 30 years.<\/p>\n
The wet weather in western Africa coincides with torrential rains in European nations including Poland, Austria and Germany that have left several people dead.<\/p>\n
–With assistance from Emele Onu, Matthew Hill, Paul Richardson and Ana Monteiro.<\/p>\n
(Updates with floods being worst in 30 years in second last paragraph.)<\/p>\n
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