Countries in southern Africa will experience persistent drought in the coming decades whereas the Sahel region in the eastern part of the continent will receive plenty of rainfall and floods, researchers have said.
 
A team of scientists from the US in a study have revealed that the southern Africa region is going to face unusual drought due to temperature changes in the Indian and Atlantic oceans and greenhouse gas emissions, reports science portal SciDev.

The study indicates that the warming of the Indian Ocean is responsible for the current drought in southern Africa, while temperature changes in the Atlantic have generated more rainfall in the Sahel.

"Changes in the Indian and Atlantic oceans are causing climate change in Africa and will have ripple effects on people and the environment," said James Hurrell, one of the researchers.

In the last three decades, regular droughts have caused crop failures in Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The researchers drew their conclusions after analysing 60 computer models that imitate global climate.

"In our models, the Indian Ocean shows very clear and dramatic warming into the future, which means persistent drought for southern Africa," said Hurrell.

However, these scientists have said that greenhouse gas emissions from human activity are hugely responsible for the warming of the Indian Ocean.

The models showed that by 2050, the monsoon winds that bring seasonal rain to sub-Saharan Africa could be 10-20 percent drier than the 1950-2000 averages in southern Africa.

The study also showed that climate changes to Africa's monsoons have occurred in the distant past because of variations in solar output.

Elaborating on the impact of this unusual climate change, researchers warned:  "Such changes might be considered minimal on a global scale but food production and distribution would be disrupted."

Added John Ng'ang'a, an atmospheric science professor of Kenya: "The signals clearly indicate that climate change has occurred much faster in sub-Saharan Africa and it will severely affect the farming communities."