https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/1/5/desert-swallows-livelihoods-as-climate-shocks-continue-in-northeast-nigeria

More communities on the fringes of the Sahara desert say they are losing their farmlands and homes.

The desert is taking away people’s ways of living as the unpredictable climate keeps causing problems in the northeast part of Nigeria.

By Murtala Abdullahi

Published On 5 Jan 20245 Jan 2024

Toshia, Nigeria – In a remote corner of Nigeria’s northeastern state of Yobe, lie communities surrounded by vast sand dunes stretching as far as the eye can see. In recent years, the desert has been coming closer to these communities, a development that continues to affect the lives of people there.

Toshia town in Yunusari local government area, close to the border with Niger, is one such community. Rides to the town involve old, crowded four-wheel drive vehicles, with passengers squeezed into every available space – including the rooftop, bouncing around as the vehicle navigates the soft sand.

Bulama Mele was only a child when desert encroachment compelled his parents to start farming in Niger. Now a 40-year-old father of eight children, he says the desert is enclosing the town from every direction. He now endures the tough commute to run his farm in Niger, after losing the two farms he had in Toshia, to the deserts.

Besides creating a challenging commute, the desert has also significantly affected the living conditions.

Others have also incurred heavy losses as the environmental crisis continues to deplete dozens of farms and trigger food shortages in those areas. As many as 10 farms belonging to the village head Maigari Isa Bukar, his brothers, and his father were lost to the encroaching desert.

And like his father, Bukar was also displaced from his home.

Al Jazeera spoke to other residents who said the sands have also buried more than 20 houses in recent years. Consequently, land has become scarce to the point that people are now returning to rebuild in areas that were abandoned.

Twenty years ago, Bukar said, his farm produced about 20 to 30 bags of beans, millet, groundnut, and sorghum. But presently, he has been unable to get up to a single bag because farming conditions have deteriorated. “Life has become more difficult for us because there is no food and we are hungry, nowhere to farm,” he told Al Jazeera.

Due to the shortage of grass, animals are no longer able  to roam around and feed, livestock in the community are fed from the little forage the farmers can collect from the farm. Consequently, milk production by cattle and goats has decreased. Some of the animals have even died from starvation-related diseases.

‘A dangerous issue’

In the adjoining Yusufari local government area, life in Tulo-Tulo – also near the Niger border and on the fringes of the desert – life has changed for the residents.

“The impact of desert encroachment is more than what we are describing to you, we are just giving a snippet,” said 61-year-old Dauda Maigari, a millet, sorghum, and beans farmer. The changing climate have been restricting his family’s ability to farm and raise livestock and he has begun to worry about being able to care for his 18 children and two wives.

Maigari said the desert has swallowed about 16 farms, including his, and has been expanding into nearby areas. “For example, you see the wind is blowing in this direction, let’s say this building is the point this month. If we come back next year, you will see it has moved forward by 25 metres”.

The displacement of people and their livelihoods by the Sahara, is a “dangerous issue”, said Lawan Cheri, a lecturer in public administration at the Federal Polytechnic in Damaturu the state capital.