Diana Kibuuka
18th. December is always an International Migrants Day that is marked to raise awareness about the challenges and difficulties of international migration that are caused by a number of factors including climate change effects of floods, mudslides and drought.
In Uganda Climate change migrations are common in areas of Kasese and some parts of Eastern Uganda where floods and mudslides keep on affecting lives of people during the rainy seasons – with the most recent happening in Bulambuli district, claiming over 25 lives on the 28th. November. 2024.
The World Bank estimates that some 200,000 Ugandans have been affected each year due to weather related disasters over the past two decades. Parts of the country including the capital Kampala are prone to flash floods, mudslides, landslides, and drought.
A report published by the World Bank in 2021 revealed that as many as 12 million people, or 11% of the population could move within Uganda because of slow onset climate factors, without concrete climate and development action by 2050.
According to the International Displacement Monitoring Centre, globally between 2008 and 2016, an annual average of 21.5 million people were forcibly displaced each year by weather-related events – such as floods, storms, wildfires and droughts – This figure reached a record 32.6 million in 2022. This number predicted to surge to 1.2 billion people displaced globally by 2050 due to climate change and natural disasters.
