Somali Immigrants Fled Climate Change. Now They’re Facing ICE. | Somali immigrants in the U.S. haven’t just fled violence—they’ve fled climate catastrophes that the U.S. has helped create.
Source: thenewrepublic
Somali Immigrants Fled Climate Change. Now They’re Facing ICE. | Somali immigrants in the U.S. haven’t just fled violence—they’ve fled climate catastrophes that the U.S. has helped create.
Source: thenewrepublic
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>Somalia’s contribution to climate change is almost nonexistent—estimates say it accounts for about [0.08 percent of global emissions](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12739860/). But the country faces devastating consequences of climate change, with average temperatures rising by [1.7 degrees Celsius](https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2025EnvSI..2600638M/abstract) (over three degrees Fahrenheit) since 1970. From 2020 to 2023, the East Africa region had five failed rainy seasons, an [unprecedented drought](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969723041293?via%3Dihub) and [climatic episode](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212094725000039#sec5) not seen in 40 years, which [led](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12739860/) to 70 percent crop loss, three million livestock deaths, and the displacement of about 2.9 million people in Somalia, according to some estimates. Even today, Somalia is in the midst of a drought emergency; there has been no rain since last year, and [hundreds of families](https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/11/1166456) have moved to find food and water in the Bari region of northern Somalia.