The Drought That Is Redrawing a Continent's Migration Routes
A third consecutive dry season is pushing migration patterns further and faster than most regional governments have planned for.
The rains were supposed to return this season. They did not, for the third year running, and the consequences are now visible well beyond the farmland where the drought began.
From fields to cities
Herding families who once moved with the seasons are increasingly moving permanently, toward cities that were not built to absorb them. Municipal planners describe a slow-motion strain on water systems, housing, and labor markets that predates any single crisis and will outlast this one.
Regional response, uneven results
Some governments have moved early to expand water infrastructure and resettlement programs; others have been slower, betting on a return to normal rainfall that climate models increasingly suggest will not come.
What to watch
The next several growing seasons will determine whether this becomes a temporary disruption or a permanent redrawing of where people in the region live and work.
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