Azernews.Az

Ulviyya Poladova

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Africa continues to warm at a faster rate than the global average, with the effects of climate change becoming increasingly severe across the continent, AzerNEWS reports, citing a new report by the United Nations' World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

The report, titled State of the Climate in Africa 2025, states that extreme weather and climate-related events affected at least 13 million people in 2025 and claimed more than 3,000 lives.

According to the document, prolonged heatwaves and droughts in North Africa caused significant damage to agricultural production, threatening food security and livelihoods across the region. In East Africa, climate-related disasters affected approximately 8.5 million people, disrupting communities and placing additional pressure on already vulnerable populations.

The report also highlights the rapid melting of Africa's glaciers as temperatures continue to rise. Glaciers on Mount Kilimanjaro have shrunk dramatically and could disappear entirely in the near future if current warming trends persist.

The WMO noted that glacier loss contributes to higher flood risks and rising sea levels. More than half of the extreme weather events recorded in Africa in 2025 were linked to flooding, with Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo among the countries hardest hit.

Climate change is worsening existing socio-economic challenges across the continent. Limited access to effective early warning systems in many African countries further increases vulnerability to natural disasters and hampers efforts to mitigate their impacts.

The WMO called for stronger climate adaptation measures, improved disaster preparedness, and greater investment in early warning infrastructure to help protect communities from increasingly frequent and intense climate-related events.