A question of survival

Joël Yodoyman proudly points to his mobile phone. "Look, this is one of our child experts," he says. The video shows a nine-year-old girl making a presentation. Her mike crackles but she is unfazed. In a clear, confident voice she explains to the audience how to make fire pits safer. "Let us not allow fire to destroy our environment," she concludes her presentation amidst applause from the audience.

The girl in Yodoyman’s video is a member of the Chadian environmental group Espaces Verts du Sahel (green spaces of the Sahel), a local organisation that has dedicated itself to protecting the environment. "We focus mainly on young people and children," explains its founder Yodoyman. "Today’s children will be in positions of responsibility tomorrow. Our goal is to train them to be trailblazers for climate action." Yodoyman is now 39 years old. For the last 10 years, he has devoted himself to protecting Chad’s environment and has built the nucleus of a small movement of environmental activists in this Central African country.

"In Chad, it’s a question of survival," says Yodoyman. "How can I blame a man who has to look after his family for not being interested in environmental activism? His thoughts revolve around how to pay his children’s school fees and how to put food on the table." At the same time, climate change is perceptible to everyone. That is why it is so important for the next generation to grow up with an understanding of climate action so that they are able to effortlessly integrate the concepts in their everyday lives, he explains. Children and young people constitute a large chunk of the Sahelian country: almost half the population is under the age of 15.  

The Global Adaptation Index ranks Chad among the countries most vulnerable to climate change worldwide – and it is also one of the poorest. "The impacts are most obvious in the region around Lake Chad", says Roméo Koïbé, a researcher. He gathered data about climate refugees in the Lake Chad region over a period of several years for his doctoral thesis. Once amongst the largest lakes in Africa, it has shrunk by about 90% since the 1960s. Diminishing water levels and declining fish stocks are leading to a rise in poverty and resource conflicts. Additionally, the increasing number of droughts alternating with heavy rains is causing immense hardship for the population, 80% of whom are dependent on agriculture. This year, for example, it barely rained in the country’s capital N’Djamena, while last year, the city was submerged in a deluge, says Koïbé to illustrate the increasingly erratic pattern of rainfall. More and more young people will consequently be forced to abandon traditional farming and fishing livelihoods and try their luck in the capital. "What is happening is literally climate migration into the cities. However, it often turns into disillusionment," says Koïbé and refers to the country’s unfavourable economic situation.

Chad joined the ranks of oil-producing countries in 2003, but not much of the wealth has trickled down to the population. Even the country’s capital lacks sufficient hospitals and access to clean water and electricity. "Frustration with an autocratic government, the inequitable distribution of resources and high youth unemployment coupled with extreme poverty were the triggers for protests that rocked the entire country on 20 October 2022", says Helga Dickow, senior researcher at the Arnold Bergstraesser Institute in Freiburg im Breisgau (Germany). "Chad is a country with a long history of civil war but never before did so many people die in one day," she says.

The day of the protests in October is widely referred to as jeudi noir or Black Thursday because of the ruthless response by transitional president Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno. "All opposition was crushed," says Dickow, an expert on Chad. Ever since, hardly anyone dares to take political positions in public, yet there continues to be frustration about the hardship people are facing.

Like many others, Yodoyman of Espaces Verts du Sahel spent a long time job-hunting after graduating from university – till he hit upon the idea of developing modules himself to raise awareness about climate change among his compatriots. "I got my friends together and we founded a club in 2012. This then evolved into an officially registered organisation a few years later," he says.

His experience is still shared by many young people in Chad. It is not easy to find jobs. The labour market is small and salaries are low. The dismal economic situation, especially in the region around Lake Chad, and the lack of any prospects make it easy for armed terror outfits to recruit young people. "Membership of a rebel group has virtually become an industry in Chad," says Ulf Laessing, director of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation’s regional Sahel programme. There are obvious linkages between conflict and climate change since climate change acts as a multiplier for the various challenges that the country faces.

Periodically, there are conflicts between the sedentary population in the south and the nomadic pastoralists in the north. The symbiosis that existed for centuries – with the pastoralists driving their livestock to the south in the dry season and returning to the north with the onset of the rains – has now vanished. "Since there is no rain and consequently no food, the herders are staying for progressively longer periods in the farming regions of the south," explains Yodoyman. This has resulted in increased conflicts over the use of pastureland and water. The farmers, in turn, must deal with soils that are drying out and becoming sandy, resulting in lower yields.

"The few trees that could halt the process of desertification are being chopped down because there are simply no alternative sources of energy," Koïbé noted during his research visits. An added issue is the availability of growing numbers of weapons, leading to higher casualties during such conflicts. Many herders have also armed themselves to protect their animals because cattle theft is a booming business. Yodoyman confirms that "Weapons have escalated the conflict between the communities. But the real problem is climate change. It’s a question of survival for everyone."

With its team of eight employees and 117 volunteers, Espaces Verts du Sahel attempts to arm young people with knowledge about climate change. The most dedicated children have been able to get scholarships in the past. The organisation also regularly provides a pool of child ambassadors at the UN COP climate conference. This gives girls and boys, such as the nine-year-old girl in the video on Yodoyman's mobile phone, the opportunity to make the voice of Chad's youth heard in international fora.

"It simply warms my heart when I drop in at one of our schools and see how committed the next generation of climate experts is to the environment," says Yodoyman. More often than not, the shady tree in the school yard under which the girls and boys of the environment club hold their meetings today was planted by their predecessors. "And that is a source of hope."

* Helena Kreiensiek is a freelance foreign correspondent based in Kampala, Uganda. She has lived in East Africa since 2020 and writes about current issues relevant to the continent.