Scientists say climate change made it rain harder inAfrican areas that were already hit by floods

A group of scientists from around the world said on Wednesday that climate change is making the heavy rains that caused deadly floods in Cameroon, Chad, Niger, Nigeria, and Sudan worse.

World Weather Attribution (WWA), a group of scientists studying the link between climate change and extreme weather, said that this year’s regular rains were about 5 to 20 percent stronger across the Niger and Lake Chad basins.

It also said that this kind of heavy rain could happen every year if warming keeps up.
There has been a lot of rain this summer in Sudan, Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, and Chad, according to a statement from Izidine Pinto, a researcher at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute.

A UN help group called OCHA says that this year’s floods in West and Central Africa killed about 1,500 people and forced more than 1 million to leave their homes. It rained so hard that dams in Nigeria and Sudan broke.

WWA said that if global warming gets to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), which could happen as early as the 2050s, these kinds of rainstorms will probably happen almost every year in the affected areas. They want more money to be put into early warning systems and improving dams.

Joyce Kimutai, a researcher at the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College London, said, “Africa has only put out a small amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, but it is enduring the worst weather.”

She said that the COP29 climate talks in November should make sure that rich countries give “meaningful finance” to help.