With the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) set to begin in Egypt, global public health experts are focusing on the climate impacts to human health, especially on the African continent. Flooding in South Sudan, food insecurity across the Sahel, and spikes in Ebola and other disease outbreaks are…
African leaders speaking at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York laid out their case for how the destabilized global environment is impacting their nations, with food insecurity due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict a priority. The leaders of Ghana, Nigeria, and Rwanda were among those speaking at Wednesday’s…
UNICEF, the United Nations agency for children, warns that some 10.4 million children – all in countries on the African continent with the exception of Yemen – face severe food insecurity and malnutrition in the coming year. The affected nations include Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), northeast Nigeria, the…
In Mali, it’s the security crisis that’s contributing to the population’s hunger. In Kenya, a combination of floods and the ongoing fight against desert locusts are driving food insecurity, while Zimbabwe continues to struggle with high food prices in an uncertain economy. All told there are 34 African nations that…
The European Union has committed €15 million to the fight against desert locusts, which have devastated crops in East Africa. It’s the worst outbreak in decades, and a new generation of locusts is now threatening the region with the potential to spread beyond the Horn of Africa and Yemen, into…
The threat of crop-destroying locust swarms remains for the Horn of Africa and some North African nations, according to the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and its new Early Warning Early Action report. The United Nations agency has been monitoring the threat following “unprecedented spring breeding” that happened earlier this…
Experts with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warn that severe drought conditions in Somalia may leave 18 percent of the population facing severe food insecurity this year. Rains in the southern growing areas never arrived in April and early May, the heart of the “gu” rainy season…
Just over a month since areas of the country were laid waste by Cyclone Idai—the deadliest cyclone to hit southern Africa in more than a century— a new natural disaster has struck Mozambique. Cyclone Kenneth made landfall with wind speeds of 220km per hour, killing hundreds and devastating infrastructure, buildings…
Monica is a freelance journalist based in Kenya
A key climate report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released Monday warns that the global community must act decisively and dramatically to try and limit catastrophic impacts from climate change – and that some impacts remain unavoidable even if global warming is held to the 1.5°C level….
Climate change is “inextricably linked to some of the most pressing security challenges of our time,” said Nigerian Amina Mohammed, the United Nations deputy secretary-general, during remarks made to the UN Security Council on Wednesday. During the last 18 months, the Security Council has recognized the adverse effects of climate…