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Mohammad Israyel
"I had 50 sheep, four cows and two donkeys. We have all lost our crops and I have sold 22 of my sheep since the drought began. You can’t imagine how difficult it is to sell your sheep. It’s like selling your children. I feel the pain, but I had no option. |
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Dorcas Pirosis
"This is the worst year that I have witnessed in my life; everything seems to be going against tradition and we do not know when things will improve. |
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Amos Lerasia
"I started herding [livestock] while very young, at the age of five; I was among a group of boys taking care of more than 300 animals. I was later employed as a herder and a guard. |
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Saleh Al-Ali
“I struggle to provide food for my family. I lost all my animals - about 55 sheep - in the floods. They were all I had. My relatives gave me some sheep to help me get back on my feet. |
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Paul Thiao
"We have been experiencing big changes since 1972. We had years with virtually no rain at all. Lots of livestock died and people left the countryside for the city. |
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Amina Khatoon
"At school we learned about river erosion – I think that it was that. We are getting a lot of rain, more and more rain. People also fall sick a lot now. |
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Saber Ahmed
"Life had already been getting hard on the island. The sea was eating the island, which was also sinking as the sea was also rising. |
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Arlinda Cunah
"If the warning tells us the cyclone is two days away we use the blue warning flag; and this yellow one is used when we have only one day to prepare. This one means urgent - it's red. |
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Awadjii Yekini
“Before, for each harvest, I had tons of beans. I could sell half of them and save the other half for my family. The beans earned me more than USD$200. |
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Peter Elim
"The cows left in the 1980s when the situation started changing. That is when the vegetation started declining. Before then, in the 1970s, we could keep cows here but not any more.
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Voices from the frontline
People living in the Sahelian band of West Africa are among those worst affected by shifting patterns of rainfall and desertification in the world, the UN says.
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Vanessa Gabunigaby
"The consequences of the current situation are so clear: there are conflicts between farmers and pastoralists, between farmers and fishermen, even in families there are conflicts now.
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Miraj
My father was a fisherman along the river. After he died, we thought about moving somewhere else, but my mother was afraid to… |