Climate Change Poses Growing Threats to Vulnerable Africa, UN Says

Ethiopia struggles to suppress desert locust infestation | Photo: REUTERS
Ethiopia struggles to suppress desert locust infestation | Photo: REUTERS
TT

Climate Change Poses Growing Threats to Vulnerable Africa, UN Says

Ethiopia struggles to suppress desert locust infestation | Photo: REUTERS
Ethiopia struggles to suppress desert locust infestation | Photo: REUTERS

Floods, droughts, hotter weather, and a desert locust invasion - the impacts of climate change are hitting Africa hard, and worse is ahead for the region´s food supplies, economy, and health, the UN climate agency said on Monday.

Temperatures have been rising on the continent of 1.2 billion at a comparable rate to other regions, but Africa is exceptionally vulnerable to the shock, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

Warming temperatures are slashing crop yields. Agriculture is the backbone of Africa's economy.

"By the middle of this century, major cereal crops grown across Africa will be adversely impacted," the WMO said in a report.

It projected a reduction in yields of 13% in West and Central Africa, 11% in North Africa, and 8% in East and Southern Africa.

African countries are generally low-income and ill-equipped to respond to this and other consequences of climate change, the WMO said.

Natural disasters such as Cyclones Idai and Kenneth, which struck three countries in southern Africa in 2019, underscored the region´s exposure, it said.

The cyclones forced more than two million people from their homes, killed many hundreds, and destroyed a half million hectares of crops in Mozambique.

Meanwhile, in drought-prone areas including West Africa´s Sahel, the number of undernourished people has jumped by 45% since 2012, the organization said. Climate change is compounding problems such as conflict to drive growing hunger.

In the Horn of Africa, below-average rainfall in 2018 and 2019 led to the worst cereal harvest in Somalia since records began in 1995 and to crop failures in neighboring Kenya.

Floods followed. Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Tanzania recorded at least double their average seasonal rainfall in late 2019.

The rain helped crops grow but also fuelled the locusts that have devoured hundreds of thousands of hectares of land in those countries since January.

For now, the poorest are most affected.

Africa´s overall gross domestic product will fall by between 2.25% and 12.12% as temperatures rise, according to a "long-term impact" study cited in the report. It did not specify a time period for the forecast.

Warmer and wetter weather is also more suitable for insects that transmit dengue fever, malaria, and yellow fever.



Ukraine Strikes Moscow in Biggest Drone Attack on Russian Capital

An apartment damaged by recent Ukraine's drone attack, according the local authorities, in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict, in Ramenskoye in the Moscow region, is seen in this image released March 11, 2025. Governor of Moscow region Andrei Vorobyov via Telegram/Handout via REUTERS
An apartment damaged by recent Ukraine's drone attack, according the local authorities, in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict, in Ramenskoye in the Moscow region, is seen in this image released March 11, 2025. Governor of Moscow region Andrei Vorobyov via Telegram/Handout via REUTERS
TT

Ukraine Strikes Moscow in Biggest Drone Attack on Russian Capital

An apartment damaged by recent Ukraine's drone attack, according the local authorities, in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict, in Ramenskoye in the Moscow region, is seen in this image released March 11, 2025. Governor of Moscow region Andrei Vorobyov via Telegram/Handout via REUTERS
An apartment damaged by recent Ukraine's drone attack, according the local authorities, in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict, in Ramenskoye in the Moscow region, is seen in this image released March 11, 2025. Governor of Moscow region Andrei Vorobyov via Telegram/Handout via REUTERS

Ukraine launched its biggest drone attack on the Russian capital on Tuesday with at least 91 drones targeting Moscow, killing at least one person, sparking fires, closing airports and forcing dozens of flights to be diverted, Russian officials said.
A total of 337 Ukrainian drones were downed over Russia, including 91 over the Moscow region and 126 over the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces have been pulling back, the defense ministry said.
As rush hour built, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said air defenses were still repelling attacks on the city, which along with the surrounding region has a population of at least 21 million and is one of the biggest metropolitan areas in Europe.
"The most massive attack of enemy UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) on Moscow has been repelled," Sobyanin said in a post on Telegram.
Moscow Region Governor Andrei Vorobyov said at least one person was killed and three injured, and he posted a picture of a wrecked apartment with its windows blown out.
Vorobyov said that some residents were forced to evacuate a multi-story building in the Ramenskoye district of the Moscow region, about 50 km (31 miles) southeast of the Kremlin.
There was no sign of panic in Moscow, commuters went to work as normal in central Moscow.
Russia's aviation watchdog said flights were suspended at all four of Moscow's airports to ensure air safety after the attacks. Two other airports, in the Yaroslavl and Nizhny Novgorod regions, both east of Moscow, were also closed.
Though US President Donald Trump says he wants to deliver peace in Ukraine, the war is heating up on the battlefield with a major Russian spring offensive in Kursk and a series of Ukrainian drone attacks deep into Russia.
Russia has developed a myriad of electronic "umbrellas" over Moscow and over key installations, with additional advanced internal layers over strategic buildings, and a complex web of air defenses to shoot down the drones before they reach the Kremlin in the heart of the capital.
Kyiv, itself the target of repeated mass drone strikes from Russian forces, has tried to strike back against its vastly larger eastern neighbor with repeated drone strikes against oil refineries, airfields and even Russian strategic early-warning radar stations.