Africa Update #43: Excessive Rainfall Around Lake Chad Causes Flooding

Heavy rainfall slammed the greater Lake Chad area affecting Chad, Niger, Nigeria and Cameroon. Positive rainfall anomalies were reported from parts of every country from North Sudan to Senegal, though season long deficits and inconsistency remain overriding problems for Africa. A drier than normal mid-summer break in the rains along the Gulf of Guinea coast.

Africa Update #41: Rain Still Insuffiecent in much of the Sahel

From Niger and Niger eastward to North and South Sudan, moisture continues to be erratic and insufficient. In the east, The Gambia and Sengal are also struggling to receive enough moisture, and that dryness extends southward along the coast. Heavy precipitation over the Central African Republic is the exception to this dry trend. Here flooding, especially in low lying areas is likely. The Ethiopian highlands continue to receive steady rainfall.

Africa Update #39: Moisture deteriorating across the Sahel

As rainfall continues to be below normal across much of the Sahel, concerns are rising about patches of failed crops from Nigeria to Sudan. In east Africa, the food crisis is now building to a head, parts of Somalia have been declared to be in a famine by the UN, and more territory in Somalia, and possibly Ethiopia and Kenya may follow.

Africa Update #38: Emergency looms in Nigeria and both Sudans

A major emergency is possibly building in Nigeria and Sudan and newly independent (as of yesterday) South Sudan if rainfall does not stabilize across these regions. Looking over a wider area, more moisture is still needed in western Niger, Burkina Faso, much of Chad, and the Central African Republic. Off to the west rainfall remains plentiful; and in Ethiopia, despite a couple of weeks of poor precipitation, rainfall remains well distributed.