We never know if the rainy season will help, or if it is going to destroy everything'

Families have been raising livestock in the Afar region of northeastern Ethiopia for centuries, but Nick Ferris finds traditions are changing thanks to the climate crisis impact

- Nick Ferris

Driving through the desert-like landscapes of the Afar, northern Ethiopia, traditional Afari tukuls - oval-shaped, flexible shelters made out of twigs and covered with mats or animal skins are regularly seen scattered along the roadside.

These tent-like structures are specifically designed for their mobility, and they speak to how the livestock-raising community of Afar has traditionally trekked across the region, looking for pasture for their herds of camels and sheep, transporting the materials they need for their homes as they go.

Afar is considered the cradle of humanity, given that it is where the “mother of humanity”, known as “Lucy”, was discovered in 1974, and some of the oldest known stone tools have been discovered in the region.

When Lucy walked the valleys of Afar three million years ago, the landscapes were lush green and rich with biodiversity. The climate has been through many shifts since then, and is currently rapidly going through another. The human-driven climate crisis is pushing up the average temperature, disrupting weather patterns, and making the already arid environment ever more inhospitable for its inhabitants.

“Climate change is a huge issue here in Afar, driving two extremes: drought when there is not enough rain, and flooding, which erodes the soil and degrades the performance of land,” says Habtamu Ebrie, who leads the work by the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) on livelihoods and resilience in Afar. Both rainy seasons of 2025, he adds, have followed a worrying pattern of arriving too late and then falling too hard and fast causing floods.