DADAAB, KENYA — A new kind of refugee has arrived: Those forced from their home regions not by war or persecution, but by the climate. A Kenyan camp is bursting with the displaced, some who share their stories. For centuries, Adam Abdi Ibrahim’s ancestors herded cattle and goats across an unforgiving landscape in southern Somalia where few others were hearty enough to survive. This year, Ibrahim became the first in his clan to throw in the towel, abandoning his land and walking for a week to bring his family to this overcrowded refugee camp in Kenya. He’s not fleeing warlords, Islamist insurgents or Somalia’s 18-year civil war. He’s fleeing the weather. ‘I give up,’ said the father of five as he stood in line recently to register at the camp. After enduring four years of drought and the death of his last 20 animals, Ibrahim, 28, said he has no plans to return. Asked how he planned to live, Ibrahim shrugged. ‘I want to be a refugee.’ Africa is already home to one-third of the 42 million people worldwide uprooted by ethnic slaughter, despots and war. But experts say climate change is quietly driving […]
Sunday, October 25th, 2009
Fleeing Drought In The Horn Of Africa
Author: EDMUND SANDERS
Source: Los Angeles Times
Publication Date: 25-Oct-09
Link: Fleeing Drought In The Horn Of Africa
Source: Los Angeles Times
Publication Date: 25-Oct-09
Link: Fleeing Drought In The Horn Of Africa
Stephan: These drought forced migrations, resulting from climate change, are going to have a powerful impact on the world's status quo -- including in the United States. In 10 years, buying property in the Southwest, for instance, is going to be a very problematic choice. Around the world over a billion people, mostly poor and desperate, will be on the move, leaving their ancestral lands because of drought. Water is destiny.