A general view of an Internally Displaced Persons camp in Bentiu, South Sudan. Climate change has aggravated displacement in the country. Photograph: Luke Dray/Getty Images’s schools closed on Monday as a result of an extreme heatwave that has seen temperatures topping 40 degrees and is expected to last for two weeks.
Parents have been advised to keep their children indoors, with the health and education ministries saying they “will continue to monitor the situation and inform the public accordingly”.is impacting children in South Sudan,” said Pornpun Rabiltossaporn, the South Sudan country director for international humanitarian organisation Save the Children. “Already 70 per cent – or 2.8 million children – out of school here and now the schools are closing in this heatwave.
More than 110 million people on the African continent were directly affected by weather, climate and water-related hazards in 2022, the World Meteorological Organization said in its latest annual report. “Africa is responsible for less than 10 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. But it is the continent which is the least able to cope with the negative impacts of climate change. Heatwaves, heavy rains, floods, tropical cyclones, and prolonged droughts are having devastating impacts on communities and economies, with increasing numbers of people at risk,” said WMO secretary-general Petteri Taalas. Most figures put Africa’s contribution to global emissions at 4 per cent or less.