During the Defence Writers Group in Washington, Maureen Farrell highlighted the detrimental impact of the harsh weather conditions on the US interests in Africa.
“It’s an issue that our African colleagues raise to us repeatedly in almost every engagement we have overseas,” Farrell said.
According to Farrell, the Defense Department is certainly conscious of the challenges brought on by global warming and climate change.
She pointed out that outside of the US Marines, the U.S. military must be prepared to function in any “clime and place,” and American strategists are collaborating with their African colleagues to acquire new methods, procedures, and practices to adapt to a changing environment.
What Maureen Farrell said
“Our opportunities to engage in exchange overseas also help prepare U.S. strategic readiness and our interoperability with forces worldwide,” she stated.
She then went on to elaborate on the idea that climate issues are contributing to some of the current conflicts in Africa.
“The effects in the environment are tangible and measurable, and we see that it is creating conflict,” the deputy assistant secretary said.
She also explained how stressors increase the potential for conflict in some regions of the continent.
“Globally, there are a number of African conflicts that we could point to that are over water and land rights,” she said.
“There is increasing tension over those kinds of resources. We’ve seen devastating floods in coastal West Africa,” she stated.
The devastating drought in the Horn of Africa has caused damage in five nations in the area.
“Candidly, these are environments where violent extremists can thrive.
When people, when families, when communities, reach a sense of desperation because of a lack of economic opportunity or agricultural failure or a lack of sustainable water sources, they are more easily lured by some of the offerings from violent extremists.
Climate-stressed areas are a recruiting opportunity for terrorist groups,” she said.
The Secretary of Defense also indicated that when past droughts affected Somalia, the terrorist group al-Shabab noticed an increase in recruitment.
This is directly related to the absence of opportunities in the communities there, as seen in the U.S. Department of Defense website.
We also see an increase in climate-stressed areas in terms of conflict between pastoral and farmer-herder communities over the water resources and agricultural lands,” she said.
“In almost all of the sub-regions of Africa, we have tensions over droughts, flooding, and agricultural productivity,” she continued.
This leads to increased migration, and the European allies are feeling those pressures. “As people have fewer viable farming areas, we see population flows moving to where they can sustain themselves,” she added.
“And this, in many cases, means moving north from the Sahel.”
