Introduction: Centring Eastern Africa in the climate crisis

Citation

McQuaid K, Crawford N, Nanduddu S & Nyukuri E (2025) Introduction: Centring Eastern Africa in the climate crisis. In: Crawford NJW, Nanduddu S, McQuaid K & Nyukuri E (eds.) Intersectional Climate Justice in Eastern Africa. London: Bloomsbury, pp. 1-22. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350516465.ch-1

Abstract
First paragraph: In 2023, floods caused by ongoing heavy rains devastated parts of Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia. Within November of that year, more than 795,000 people were displaced in Somalia alone (Spindler 2023). Many of the impacted people were already internally displaced due to ongoing conflict and drought, making the current crisis a second or third displacement for some. The floods have extensively damaged or destroyed homes, with some survivors forced to shelter under trees on higher ground, while others have drowned. The impacts of these floods did not stop there. Already precarious livelihoods were made worse. In one part of southern Ethiopia, over 65 per cent of the land was submerged under floodwaters, severely harming crops production, while in Somalia thousands of livestock and hectares of crops died or were destroyed (Spindler 2023). The floods sparked new or amplified existing sanitation and health risks with hundreds of communal latrines damaged, heightening the risk of waterborne diseases such as cholera, while damage to roads has cut communities off from healthcare providers, with limited other opportunities. Among those most impacted are already displaced people. In five settlements in Ethiopia, 213,000 refugees have been impacted by the flooding, losing shelters and lacking access to clean drinking water and healthcare. Nearly 1,000 families have lost their homes. Meanwhile in Kenya’s Dadaab refugee camps close to 25,000 people were affected, often relying on other refugees to give them shelter, prompting overcrowding (Spindler 2023).