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Voices from the frontline of climate change

Young child near Timbuktu, northern Mali. In some regions of the country one in four children die before the age of five. Nicholas Reader/IRIN

People living in the Sahelian band of West Africa are among those worst affected by shifting patterns of rainfall and desertification in the world, the UN says. IRIN asked five people near Timbuktu in northern Mali what climate change means for them, and these are their replies.


Photo: Nicholas Reader/IRIN
Hama Abacrinne, a teacher
Hama Abacrinne, teacher, Bintagoungou village:

“We don’t talk about climate change here, we talk about how we are lacking water and food. There is so little water and the community cannot support everyone. The nomads left long ago mostly to go to Mopti. Some stayed but either their herds got smaller or they just settled in villages.”


Photo: Nicholas Reader/IRIN
Lactib, a nomadic pastoralist
Lactib, animal herder, near Goundam:

“I came to this region with my animals looking for water and food for them. Look, how small and weak they are. These days I either find water and no food, or food and no water, rarely both. This area is not good now – I will stay for two months and then move on. I don’t know if I will come back.”


Photo: Nicholas Reader/IRIN
Mohamed Elamud, a farmer
Mohamed Elamud, farmer, near Bintagoungou village:

“All I want to have is water. I grow zucchini’s but they are dry, withered, not good to eat and hard to sell. The corn is impossible now. Without water it’s going to be hopeless. I won’t leave though – I think it must get better.”


Photo: Nicholas Reader/IRIN
Fatimata, a mother
Fatimata, mother, Bintagoungou village:

“The rain doesn’t come often now and the canals are empty. We have to pump all the water we use and carry it every day. Sometimes even the pump doesn’t give us any water. All the villages around here are the same and we are all threatened by it.”


Photo: Nicholas Reader/IRIN
Boubacar Bankaro, a farmer
Boubacar Bankaro, farmer, Issafaye village:

“The problems we have here are hunger and poverty. The river used to flow all year right past the village, giving us very fertile land. For the last 10 years we have had less and less water to grow food and now sometimes even to drink.”


Read more climate change stories at IRIN's In-depth page - Gathering Storm - the humanitarian impact of climate change


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This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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