Somalia — A country already living the climate emergency in the horn of Africa
Somalia — often referred to as the most dangerous country in the world. A country where climate change feeds the hunger of conflict and where food and water are not only a basic need but also a source of power. Where illicit charcoal trade fuels the pockets of terrorist organisations, not only threatening security but devastating the environment and livelihoods of its people.
Pushing one of the world’s most resilient communities into cities, refugee camps or to militant groups. Somalia has been declared a failed state by the international community being without an effective government since 1991 and causing 1 million people to die from famine, disease and conflict.
Besides battling civil war, political instability, piracy and terrorism, Somalia is already living the devastating consequences caused by climate change. In 2011, violence, droughts and floods caused severe famine calling for humanitarian intervention. (https://www.unfpa.org/data/emergencies/somalia-humanitarian-emergency).
Two-thirds of the countries 15 million population live in rural areas and depend on seasonal rains for their crops and livestock. Due to the drought, crops were failing and pushed communities into food insecurity. Over the last 30 years, the droughts intensified with increased floods in the rainy season. Each climate shock stripping the already crippled assets and pushing more and more people into despair.
Marian Osman
“You’ve Made a Wager of Our Future. There’s a Somali proverb that goes: a mere finger can’t obscure the sun. You cannot hide the truth by deception; as any one of the thousands whom are in need in Somalia and the Philippines this week could tell you, no amount of political stalling can hide the fact that a climate crisis is here.”
Shortly after Marian (the oldest of nine children) was born in Italy, her parents moved back to Somalia, however, due to the civil war they relocated to Canada under the Humanitarian Refugee Program. Her time as a refugee certainly shaped her with her mom reminding her that “they are refugees and that refugees are strong”. During a school assignment about a Cambodian refugee, her teacher asked the class if everyone understood what a refugee is when she answered that refugees are super powerful people.
At the age of 13, the family moved back to Somalia when the civil war was less severe but not officially over yet. Due to the severe impact of climate change in Somalia, Marian started showing interest in environmental policy. This was in 2007 when severe famine struck, and Somalia was declared a humanitarian crisis. Very quickly the government fell apart and many terrorist organisations attacked the power of the government. After 20 years of war and the ongoing dedication of the Somalian people, the parliament was rebuild. Marian believes that the metamorphosis of the country allowed a young person like her to get involved in the intergenerational equity established by the government.
She was only 17 when she went to her first UN conference (COP17) held in Durban, South Africa in 2011. She recalled being excited to see “things getting done” however she soon realised that the adults supposedly holding her future in their hands could not agree on anything.
She made a powerful statement to the main plenary at COP19 in Warsaw in saying “The defining problem of my generation blinds us, burns as and its easy to look away. But why raise a finger when we could join hands”. Listen to her powerful address below.
Today, she is a UN International Youth representative and continues to fight for her country and to see her country return to the dream her parent once knew. Follow her journey on Twitter here.
Fatima Jibrell
“People are fighting about limited resources, destroyed by displaced youth: a ready pool for hire for warlords, companies of charcoal; for piracy and for every other evil thing that they could find.”
Fatima was born in 1947 in Somalia and left the country at the age of 16 to join her father in the United States. She returned to Somalia in 1969and in 1991 when the civil war was raging she, her husband and friend co-founded the Horn of Africa Relief and Development Organisation (now called Adeso).
Fatima’s childhood story is fascinating. When she was a child her parents confined her in their hut. They were worried about her wandering around in the grasslands which were home to somalin lions. She has seen environmental devastation during her childhood year causing most of the lions to vanish and watched how their once fertile land became a desert as a result of drought.
As a result of their unstable government, the environmental degradation intensified, this caused the central government to collapse in 1991 leading to a civil war. Charcoal became a major source of fuel replacing the livestock exports following the livestock ban in 2000. This lucrative charcoal market led to environmentally damaging logging and was called Somalia’s black gold, and could sell for up to $10 in Saudi Arabia.
Fatima together with the youth, led several environmental campaigns, raising awareness around the irreversible damage of the unrestricted charcoal production and the “charcoal wars” that erupted due to the sought after commodity. Her life was threatened for two decades whilst fighting the “charcoal terrorists” and armed gangs who ran lucrative businesses from the illicit charcoal trade. This led to the government banning the export of charcoal in 2000, resulting in an 80% reduction in exports. In addition, she established Sun Fire Cooking that promotes solar cookers within the communities to eliminate the need for domestic charcoal.
In 2008 Fatima wrote and co-produces a short fictional film called “Charcoal Traffic” to educate people on the charcoal crisis. You can watch the trailer of the film here.
Listen to her story below
Fatima retired from ADESCO in 2013 after expanding the organisations' efforts in South Sudan and Kenya. Her daughter Degan with the guidance from Fatima is currently leading a program that restores fisheries in Somalia’s coast by training communities in sustainable fishing practices, revitalizing critical habitats such as mangroves and coral reefs, and developing community-led responses to illegal fishing.
Faduma Dayib
“I have a calling and purpose in this world. We must stand and speak up against injustices, my family gets that, it’s not easy but this is who I am. If loving my land means I will die, so be it.”
“The time has come for women to step forward and take leadership.”
Although Faduma is not strictly speaking a climate activist, I believe she needs to get special mention due to the hope that she brought to the Somalian people. She was born in Kenya in a displacement camp to Somali parents. They have travelled there after losing eleven previous children to preventable diseases. She managed to escape to Finland (during the 1990’s civil war) when her parents sold all their positions to give her a better life. Besides many obstacles and only learning to read and write at the age of fourteen, she obtained two masters degrees, including a masters in Public Administration at Harvard University.
With education close to her heart her vision is to give Somalis the same opportunity that Finland gave to her when she was a refugee. The advocates that the situation in Somalia is un-attainable as 85% of the Somali population is under the age of 35 yet no means to a livelihood or that ability to know there is a better future for them.
In 2014 she announced her standing for the presidency causing the mother of four to receive many death threats. This did not stop her and in 2016 she was the first women and the only female among the eighteen presidential candidates, to run for president of Somalia, fighting against corruption, nepotism and injustice. She later withdrew her candidacy stating that she did not want to participate in an election, “marred by corruption, rigging, intimidation, violence and blatant disregard for the rule of law”.
Listen to her inspiring BBC interview here.
The conflict in Somalia has affected the citizens for over 30 years and there is still a long road ahead to mark the end of the conflict and humanitarian crises. However, I do hope that the inspiring women as mentioned above will pave the way for more women leaders to emerge and speak up for the future that they deserve.
