Climate Change anda Population Displacement in Africa

Abstract

There issufcient evidence to argue that climate change causes an increasing frequency ofdisasters, with loss of human lives and structural assets that hit the leastdeveloped countries hardest.Thissituation is particularly relevant for countries on the African continent,where, despite having lower greenhouse gas emission indicators than countrieswith higher levels of development (such as the European countries), the efectsof disasters related to climate change have shown greater impact in recentdecades (Adenle, Manning, & Arbiol, 2017; Collier, Conway, & Venables,2008; Conway & Schipper, 2011; Downing, Ringius, Hulme, & Waughray, 1997;Henderson, Storeygard, & Deichmann, 2017; Matondo, Alemaw, & Sandwidi,2020). Among the consequences of disasters to the population, damage tohouseholds should be pointed out, in addition to deaths and economic losses. Incountries with lower levels of development, these damages sometimes turndwellings into uninhabitable buildings (Abeldaæo Z?æiga & GonzálezVilloria, 2018). Hence, one of the most signifcant impacts of disasters on thepopulation is forced displacement due to disaster situations (Kolmannskog &Trebbi, 2010).Owing to the various dimensions of social vulnerability faced by the countriesof the African continent, population displacement is one of the main obstaclesafecting post-disaster recovery.Some authors point out that individuals and families who are forced to leavetheir homes often lose their jobs and their primary source of income, but arealso more likely to experience health problems during and after the period theyremain displaced (Hori & Schafer, 2010). Worldwide, the phenomenon offorced displacement by disasters is showing an increasing trend, partly due tothe increase in the occurrence of disasters related to climate change. In this sense,Kälin points out that in 2008, 36 million people were displaced within theirown countries due to a sudden onset disaster. Of that number, at least 20million displacements were due to disasters related to climate change (Kälin,2010).Africa is no stranger to this trend since disaster situations have been evidentin several countries on this continent in recent decades (Li, Chai, Yang, &Li, 2016; Manyena, 2016; Parkes, Cronin, Dessens, & Sultan, 2019).Additionally, Uganda and Ethiopia are among the countries in the world thatmost frequently receive and host displaced persons due to conficts and disasterscaused by climate change. In the year 2016 alone, these countries received, respectively,a total of 940,800 and 791,600 people, between refugees and displaced persons(Tafere, 2018).Other African countries,such as Kenya, Sudan, Rwanda, and Tanzania, also host a large number of displaced persons (Fangama Abdalla, 2015; Kakonge,2000; Solomon et al., 2018; Whitaker,2002), even being among the least-developed countries in the world andpresenting serious environmentalproblems, which can be aggravated by the large infux of people in theirterritories (Fangama Abdalla, 2015; Kakonge, 2000).Considering that theincidence of disasters related to climate change will increase in thecoming decades and that limited natural resources,such as clean water, are likely to become even more scarce in many parts of the African continent,threatening livelihoods, and exacer bating food insecurity (Manyena, 2016; Osima et al., 2018),this chapter aims to analyze the phenomenonof internal displacements due to disaster situations, trends in climate change,and incidence of disasters in the Africancountries, with the purpose of contributing to the under standing of the new patterns ofdisplacement and competition for depleted natural resources, which can cause conficts between communities or aggravatepre-existing vulnerabilities.