U.N. head links climate change, Darfur

WASHINGTON – Climate change is partly to blame for the conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region, where droughts have provoked fighting over water sources, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in an editorial published Saturday.

“Almost invariably, we discuss Darfur in a convenient military and political shorthand


Rainfall in Sudan began declining two decades ago, a phenomenon due “to some degree, from man-made global warming,” said Ban, who has made both Darfur and climate change priorities.

Settled farmers and Arab nomadic herders had gotten along until the drought, he wrote, but as conditions worsened, water and food shortages disrupted the peace and “evolved into the full-fledged tragedy we witness today.”

Ban said similar ecological problems are behind conflicts in other countries, including Somalia and Ivory Coast.

AP