Drought, flooding displacing millions in East Africa, UN says

According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM, UN Migration), drought and flooding in East Africa are displacing millions of people.

Mohammed Abdiker, UN Migration Regional Director for East and Horn of Africa, revealed this.

Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the high-level inter-ministerial conference on Migration, Environment, and Climate Change, which is being held at Speke Resort Munyonyo, Abdiker stated that climate change-induced human mobility cannot be ignored any longer.

"We can no longer talk about climate change without talking about human mobility, because this is how climate change is affecting our region, and also our continent," Abdiker said.

According to the UN Migration regional director for East and Horn of Africa, climate change has been on the agenda for a long time, but the missing link has always been human mobility.

"The impact of displacement and the whole issue of relocation due to climate change is what we need to deal with,"Abdiker said.

According to Abdiker, a very good example of climate change-induced migration is the historical drought in Somalia, which is caused by climate change.

"In South Sudan, we are seeing flooding waters. In the Tanganyika area in Burundi, we are seeing more and more people being displaced because of the overflowing of Lake Tanganyika. We are seeing a climate emergency and its not about what we do tomorrow, it is about what we do today," Abdiker stressed.

He said that the region must raise the issues of climate induced mobility at global platforms and, later this year at the 27th Conference of Parties (COP27) in order to draw attention to the problem.

"The first thing we shall need is humanitarian assistance, right now millions of people are in need of food assistance, millions of people are in need of shelter and we can look at how we can help them to adopt."

The conference on Migration and Climate Change in Kampala seeks to enhance cooperation in relation to climate change-induced human mobility, including migration, displacement and planned relocation.

The conference that ends today has attracted 12 countries from the East and Horn of Africa under the IGAD, EAC and the IOM East and Horn of Africa regions: Burundi, Djibouti, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, United Republic of Tanzania and Uganda.