Navin Singh Khadka

Extreme heat and drought across Africa are increasingly harming camels, animals traditionally considered highly resilient to desert conditions. In Ethiopia’s Afar region, herders report burns, eye problems and the deaths of camel calves, while studies in Somalia, Kenya and Algeria show rising mortality, disease, heat stress and falling milk production. Scientists attribute the worsening conditions to temperatures exceeding camels’ normal tolerance, alongside declining water supplies, vegetation and shade, as well as limited veterinary services. Pastoralists in Ethiopia are being forced to abandon northern areas for regions with more water and pasture, threatening livelihoods that depend on camel herding.

Rising temperatures and increasingly severe droughts are harming camel herds across Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya and North Africa. Extreme heat is causing stress, dehydration, disease, reduced milk production, reproductive problems and higher mortality, with Somalia’s camel-owning households particularly affected. Losses of water, vegetation and shade, combined with inadequate veterinary services, are worsening the crisis and forcing some Ethiopian herders to abandon traditional northern grazing areas. Scientists warn that even camels’ renowned heat resistance has limits as temperatures increasingly exceed their physiological comfort zone.