A young girl carries an empty bucket across the sand to get water from a well in Barrah, a desert village in Chad’s Sahel belt.
Ben Curtis/AP
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Ben Curtis/AP
A young girl carries an empty bucket across the sand to get water from a well in Barrah, a desert village in Chad’s Sahel belt.
Ben Curtis/AP
LAGOS, Nigeria – According to a study by an international network of scientists, the deadly heat wave that hit West Africa earlier this month, overloading hospitals and morgues in many parts of the region, will would not have occurred without human-caused climate change. Extreme temperatures above 110 degrees Fahrenheit may have killed hundreds or thousands of people across many areas of the country.
New analysis from World weather attribute group found that soaring temperatures in the region during the five-day heatwave would not have been possible without human-caused climate change, including the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation. Previous studies have found that nighttime temperatures that are too hot can be especially dangerous because the body is unable to cool down and recover from the stress of daytime temperatures.
The five-day period from late March to early April was one of the most extreme on record, a once-in-200-year event that resulted in the hottest day in the world. Kayes city of Mali in early April, with temperatures reaching 119 degrees F (48.5 degrees C).
A hospital in Mali’s capital Bamako recorded 102 deaths in the first four days of April, nearly the same number of deaths recorded in the entire month last year. The hospital said more than half of those who died were over 60 years old. Heat plays a role in their death.
The extent of the deaths across the region is unclear, but local reports suggest the death toll is unusually high and some morgues in Bamako have become overloaded.
Deaths have also been caused by electricity shortages in countries such as Nigeria and Sierra Leone, leaving people without fans and air conditioning. It increases risks for vulnerable groups and even groups not normally considered vulnerable. It also coincides with Ramadan, the fasting period for Muslims, the majority religious group in West Africa’s Sahel region.
An empty room in a concrete house in Matam, Senegal. Many families do not have electricity nor are they equipped with fans or air conditioners to protect against the intense heat at night. The temperature can remain around 35 degrees Celsius throughout the night.
John Wessels/AFP via Getty Images
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John Wessels/AFP via Getty Images
An empty room in a concrete house in Matam, Senegal. Many families do not have electricity nor are they equipped with fans or air conditioners to protect against the intense heat at night. The temperature can remain around 35 degrees Celsius throughout the night.
John Wessels/AFP via Getty Images
Temperatures rose up to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 F) warmer than normal across the region – a severity that caused mass casualties. The evening did not bring much relief as temperatures rose an average of 2 degrees Celsius.
The climate crisis is especially dangerous in the Sahel region, adding to the challenge of reducing land availability for the region’s herders. These challenges have motivated mass migration in the region and jihadist insurgencies in particular have overwhelmed large parts of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.
The report concludes that similar extreme weather events in the region will continue to occur with future warming of the planet.
