Drought stress in Diamare Division, Northern Cameroon - the trends, local responses and impact

The study by Yeluma Mary Ntali, James G. Lyimo, and Francis Dakyaga contributes to the planning on climate change policy and debated by analysing impacts, trends and local responses to drought. The information has been collected from household questionnaires, key informant interviews, focus group discussions, and participatory field observations. The Mann-Kendall and Cusum tests were used to analyse weather data pertaining to rainfall and temperature to observe their trends. Due to there being ongoing disasters, droughts and floods studies have now tried to understand climatic stressors and shocks and their associated responses. This study specifically “focuses on drought as a specific climatic event by demonstrating its trends, impacts and how households respond to drought-related trends and impacts in Northern Cameron.” Drought has affected the Cameroon area and left the area devastated with many negative after effects. The study showed that the frequency and the intensity of the drought must be understood. The results showed the following, that “drought is a recurrent phenomenon in Diamare with varying intensity ranging from mild, severe, and moderate to extreme episodes and appears to be increasing in recent years with potential increases in drought hazards/disasters with negative impacts on people’s lives and livelihoods. The SPI (range from −0.01 to −2.8) indicated extreme, severe, moderate, and mild drought (mild (73%) being the notorious) events.” The researchers are trying to get policy makers and regional drought committees to assist these communities in adaptive or resilient measures to survive the droughts in the Northern Cameroon region.