Families cross arid lands under an increasingly scorching sun to reach one of the few wells in which there is still some water in the Sahel. There, they fill jugs with a liquid the color of sand, something that allows them to minimally alleviate the unbearable heat wave they are suffering. And in some parts of the Sahel they are reaching temperatures close to 50 degrees.

“The doctor told us that my mother You need about four liters of water due to the heat,” says the daughter of a 96-year-old woman who has been fighting for survival from a hospital bed for two weeks.

Only in the first three days of April, in Mali they recorded more than 100 deaths and, since then, it is estimated that there may be thousands. According to a recent study, the emission of greenhouse gases has caused the temperature in the Sahel to increase disproportionately: one and a half degrees during the day, and even more at night. “There is up to two degrees of warming, and we expect to see heat waves like this 10 times more frequently than usual,” says WWA scientist Clair Barnes.

For his part, CSIC researcher Fernando Valladares highlights in this regard that “although these figures seem small, this means that in heat waves, the maximum temperatures can be tremendous.” “Before, the maximums were around 40 degrees, while now we are going to highs of about 50“. Given these situations, it is not enough to reduce the burning of fossil fuels in the global north, but rather resources must be provided and technology to the most vulnerable.

“Let us remember that these people are the ones who have contributed the least to climate change due to their way of life, and They have a much lower climate footprint to ours,” underlines Fernando Valladares. Climate change pushes them to extreme conditions in which it is difficult and will be difficult to live.