A scientific study suggests that the historic droughts hitting Africa’s Greater Horn are due to global warming.

A historic drought has hit the Greater Horn of Africa since 2020. This climate episode is an unprecedented combination of the worst rainfall in four decades and high temperatures, making it impossible for humans to emit greenhouse gases without consequences, a scientific study published on Thursday, April 27, shows.

“Human-induced climate change has increased agricultural droughts in the Horn of Africa by 100 times” More than ever, the World Weather Attribute (WWA) report says. This global network of scientists assesses the link between extreme weather events and climate change.

More than 20 million people are threatened with starvation

Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Djibouti, Kenya and Sudan make up this large peninsula in the east of the continent, which has recorded five consecutive rainy seasons since 2020. The consequences were dramatic: millions of cattle were killed and millions of kilos of crops were destroyed. According to the UN, 22 million people are threatened with starvation in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia (where there is also an Islamist insurgency).

According to the 19 scientists who contributed to the report, climate change “Little impact on annual rainfall” Recently in the region. However, it strongly affected the rise in temperature, which caused a sharp increase in evapotranspiration, which led to a record drying of soil and vegetation.

“Climate change exacerbated this drought”, summarized Joyce Kimoudai, a Kenyan climatologist who contributed to the report, in a telephone conference on Wednesday. The current situation is described as follows “Extraordinary Drought”The fourth and final warning level at the US level.