Elections, coups, disease outbreaks and extreme weather are some of the major events happening across Africa in 2022.
Experts say problems thousands of miles away – climate change and war in Ukraine – have ravaged the continent.
Kevin Mugenya, senior adviser on resilience and food security for Africa at Mercy Corps, an international charity, said the climate crisis is hitting Africa “first and hardest” best”.
The continent of 54 countries and 1.3 billion people is facing “a catastrophic global food crisis” that “will get worse if the parties do not act quickly”, Mugenya told the news agency. AP.
With less than 1 percent of arable land available for irrigation in a continent that suffers from a third of global drought, African farmers face more than one-third of global drought, according to an International Monetary Fund policy document. erratic rainfall, rising temperatures and drought.
The deadly effects of extreme weather conditions are amplified in the Horn of Africa. According to the United Nations, the worst drought in decades has seen a failed fifth rainy season in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia that is affecting around 40 million people.
In Nigeria, 1 million acres (404,700 ha) of farmland has been submerged after the worst floods in a decade displaced more than 1.3 million people and destroyed crops that had already failed in one area. areas due to protracted conflict, Mercy Corps said.
Rising food prices due to the Ukraine war have hit sub-Saharan Africa, which imported 44 percent of its wheat from Russia and Ukraine between 2018 and 2020, according to United Nations data.
Politically, the peaceful elections in Angola, Kenya, Lesotho and Senegal were bright spots for Africa.
But armed conflict broke out across the continent, especially in Somalia, Nigeria, Mozambique, Burkina Faso and Mali. Extreme violence threatens to spread to more countries, especially in the Sahel region of West Africa.
The eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo saw violence by several armed militias, especially the M23 group. As the insecurity worsened and M23 rebels advanced to capture some territory, including a major town in August, the DRC and neighboring Rwanda threatened war as each side accused the other side of supporting armed groups in the mineral-rich area.
In Ethiopia, the continued presence in Eritrea of forces allied to the government, who are accused of committing some of the worst abuses in the two-year war between Ethiopia’s Tigray forces and the region, threatening a November peace deal to end a conflict far more dangerous than the November peace deal in Ukraine.
Two coups in Burkina Faso — the first in January and the other in September — have brought Russia’s involvement in the West African country under close scrutiny. Within hours of the second coup, the head of Russia’s shady mercenary group, the Wagner Corporation, was among the first to congratulate the new military leader.
Mercenaries of the Wagner Corporation have established a foothold for Russia in at least half a dozen African countries. These countries include the Central African Republic, Sudan and Mali, which are fighting an armed uprising similar to the one in Burkina Faso that has killed thousands and displaced about two million. evacuation. The Wagner Group has been accused of human rights abuses in Mali.
