In its report on the state of the climate in Africa 2023 published this Monday, the agency stressed that African countries must prioritize greater investment in National Meteorological and Hydrological Services and accelerate the implementation of the Early Warnings for All initiative to save lives and protect livelihood.

This will help mitigate risks, build adaptive capacity, boost resilience at local, national and regional levels and guide sustainable development strategies, it said.

These arguments are based on indicators and impacts of climate change in 2023, the warmest year on record.

Over the past 60 years, Africa has seen an accelerating warming trend that has surpassed the global average, with the continent experiencing deadly heat waves, heavy rains, floods, tropical cyclones and prolonged droughts last year, said WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo.

“While many countries in the Horn of Africa, southern Africa and north-west Africa continued to suffer from exceptional multi-year drought, others experienced extreme rainfall events with flooding and numerous casualties in 2023,” she said.

These extreme events, she said, had devastating effects on communities and serious economic consequences. Some data reflect this situation: in Africa, 2023 was among the three warmest years in the 124 years of records. This continent has been warming at a slightly faster rate than the global average, at about +0.3 ° C per decade between 1991 and 2023.

Ied/arc/lpn