A scientific study confirmed that the severe drought affecting the Horn of Africa resulted from an unprecedented combination of lack of rain and high temperatures, which would not have happened without greenhouse gas emissions.
"Human-induced climate change has made the potential for agricultural drought in the Horn of Africa 100 times greater," said the World Weather Attribution Network, which is evaluating the relationship between extreme weather events and climate change.
Since the end of the year 2020, the countries of the wider Horn of Africa (Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Djibouti, Kenya and Sudan) in the east of the African continent have been witnessing the worst drought in their history in 40 years. Five consecutive seasons of no rain have killed millions of livestock, destroyed crops and prompted millions of people to leave their areas in search of water and food elsewhere.
The authors of the study, which was published Thursday, indicated that climate change had a "slightly" effect on the recent annual rainfall amounts in the region, but it had a strong impact on the rise in temperatures responsible for a sharp increase in evaporative transpiration that led to a record drying of soil and plants.
"It's climate change that has made this drought so dangerous and so exceptional," said Kenyan climatologist co-author Joyce Kimutai in a telephone briefing on Wednesday.
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