A new battleground has emerged in Africa, leading to continuous pastoral and farmers deadly clashes ,while on the other hand,there are so many factors that are responsible for the daily influx of rural dwellers to major cities .
There is no doubt that Africa may already be feeling the negative effects of global warming ,simply because climate change might have pose different types of security threats and challenges to Human,Animals and agricultural land for crops production including the aquatic . These include insufficient rainfall and rising temperatures, which affect human livelihoods as a result of environmental stresses, ranging from severe droughts to resource scarcity and conflict because of intensified land use.
The increase in the human population has led to dramatic consequences in Sahelian countries, including food shortages, farmland expansion, and conflicts over land and natural resources
It is perfectly clear that, as a result urban to rural migration, Farmers to pastoralists annual clashes and inter-communal conflict in Africa as a result of climatic changes and other environmental challenges ,Many lives were lost,and billions of properties were destroyed,
Weather we like it not ,Climate change is today being recast as a security threat in Africa , rather than being just an environmental issue.
Rural migrants are mostly young people, and the majority comes from farming families. To be franks ,around 60 percent of rural migrants are between 15 and 34 years old. Most migrants are men; however in some countries like Mozambique, Democratic Republic of the Congo or Burkina, women form the majority of those who are migrating.while countries like Nigeria,Niger republis,Ghana,Togo,Benin Republic,Senegal and some part of the west Africa,Men were usually predominantly the migrant
The world’s population is becoming increasingly urban. Sometime in 2007 is usually reckoned to be the turning point when city dwellers formed the majority of the global population for the first time in history.
Believe me or not ,the global temperature and precipitation have changed rapidly over the last century due to anthropogenic increases of greenhouse gases(GHGs)in the atmosphere(for example, burning of fossil fuels, like coal, petroleum and natural gasses and widespread deforestation)
Indeed, cities grow in three ways, which can be difficult to distinguish: through migration (whether it’s internal migration from rural to urban areas, or international migration between countries); the natural growth of the city’s population; and the reclassification of nearby non-urban districts. Although migration is only responsible for one share of this growth, it varies widely from country to country.
So many factors were responsible rural Vulnerability and human migration in African continent
Climate change has been linked to increased frequency and intensity of destructive weather events, such as floods and hurricanes. But the effects of a warming planet on crops may pose an even greater danger, especially for the world’s poor, according to the World Bank.
Nomadic or mobile pastoralism has long been a sustainable livelihood in a diverse range of countries because of herders’ ability to move and manage risk in marginal landscapes where domesticated animals efficiently convert limited ecological productivity into sustenance. However, today pastoralism is being seriously affected by new environmental and social forces exemplified by climate change and government policy restricting movement and other practices.
Climate change in recent time has acquired global currency as never before. In fact, its ramifications, as well as its problems and consequences are well known, relatively unknown is its tendency to precipitate violent conflict
Pastoralist /farmers and communal conflict keep spreading in country like Nigeria,we press statement Association of cattlebreeders association of Nigeria (MacBan) says “ We lost 1000 people, two million cows, Fulani herdsmen lament”
This are some part the text by the association
“Members of the general public are already aware of the burning national security challenges with violent hostilities affecting pastoralist community in different parts of the country.
These very unfortunate crises have since degenerated into dangerously intolerable level of killings, maiming and unprecedented destruction of property. More worrisome is the fact that the pastoralist community which has been the main target of the offensive is also deliberately been pointed as the attackers at the same time.
This horrible accusation in both intent and purpose is meant not only to smear the image of the herdsmen as a peace loving community, but to also allow further criminal justification to carry out total ethnic cleansing on our members, as witnessed in different parts of the country.
Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria as the premier pastoralist body in the country has remained in unimaginable pains on daily basis as we receive communication of gory details of attacks, maiming and destruction of our members across the country.”
Changing climates have a significant influence on pastoralists who pursue environmentally dependent livelihoods. In harsh hot or cold landscapes the ability to obtain adequate fodder to fatten animals is the endemic challenge. Shifts in weather patterns, seasonality of precipitation and recharge of sub-surface water sources are vital to the viability of herding. In Oman, a 0.6°C annual temperature increase and 21% decrease in precipitation from 1990 to 2008 have intensified water scarcity and increased evapotranspiration in the pastoral interior of the country, resulting in catastrophic storm episodes and reduced ecological productivity.
Infrastructure related to extractive industry has also restricted movement and access to water. Mongolia meanwhile has experienced a 2°C warming trend since 1940, recurrent drought, changes in precipitation and in seasonality and reduced water sources. The detrimental impact of a changing climate manifests in the resultant rural poverty and out-migration to cities.
Perfectly speaking, Climate change is expected to bring about significant changes in migration patterns throughout the developing world. Increases in the frequency and severity of chronic environmental hazards and sudden onset disasters are projected to alter the typical migration patterns of communities and entire countries.
Climate scientists have attributed both the increasing frequency of specific extreme weather events (such as drought, flooding, and heat shocks) and the slow but steady change in long-term features of the environment (such as receding glaciers and melting permafrost) to rising temperatures caused predominantly by anthropogenic (i.e. human) sources. They predict that these, and other, observed climate changes will become more severe in coming years.
These changes in the climate are imposing an increasing burden on governments, especially in countries with limited resources, in their efforts to protect vulnerable populations and realize human rights. Changing precipitation patterns such as drought, and shorter but more intense rainfall, can have negative direct and indirect impacts on health and contribute to desertification and flooding, food insecurity, migration and increased conflict. Indigenous populations, poor and socially marginalized individuals, women, and people with disabilities, are often most affected.
Farmers, pastoralists, and the new agropastoralists are already competing for water and suitable agricultural and grazing land; regional warming and drying can only be expected to worsen the situation. the conflicts that result from this competition can turn violent, although most are settled peacefully but today in Nigeria ,the reverse is the case, because many innocents were killed as a result of these conclict
Environmental-related migration between and within states may increase existing tensions and/or create new ones, potentially leading to conflict. This issue will primarily affect underdeveloped states as weak infrastructure, resource scarcity and income disparity increase the risk of migration-related conflict. Poverty and resource scarcity are exacerbated by an influx of immigrants, especially if environmental migrants worse existing tensions and divisions within society (ethnic, national or religious).
Climate change is associated with natural changes, such as the spread of the Sahara because of desertification, reduced precipitation, devastating droughts, a rise in temperature, more intense storms and frequent flash floods,
in conclusion ,African Union AU must rise up and find means of ending the continous clashes and ,also embacked on sensitizing the public on various way ,so as to address the issues on climate change
