NEARLY two million children in sub-Saharan Africa were displaced within their countries by climate induced disasters at the end of last year, according to a leading charity.

The Save the Children Fund said that many of the 1.85 million displaced children faced multiple displacements and were forced to live in camps, with extended family, or in other temporary arrangements.

Kijala Shako, head of advocacy, communications, campaigns and media for Save the Children’s east and southern Africa regional office, said in a statement: “When children lose their homes, they lose almost everything: their access to healthcare, education, food and safety.”

Ms Shako also stated that she hopes that leaders participating in the ongoing Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi will acknowledge that the climate crisis is having a disastrous impact on children’s lives and respond to children’s needs and rights.

The charity said that five failed rainy seasons in Somalia forced about 6.6 million people, about 39 per cent of the population, into critical levels of hunger.

Save the Children also said that the number of new internal displacements throughout the year across sub-Saharan Africa in 2022 caused by climate disasters was also three times higher than the previous year, with 7.4m new internal displacements in 2022 compared to 2.6m in 2021.

Save the Children said that climate change is having a growing impact on the African continent, which has the smallest share of global greenhouse gas emissions of all the world’s regions.

The charity said that the El Nino weather pattern is causing even more extreme weather events and pushing up global temperatures further.

It said that it expected this figure to increase further this year.

Save the Children was founded in 1919 and helps to raise funds to create better educational opportunities, better healthcare and improved economic opportunities for children.