Rising heat is pushing Africa’s camels beyond their limits

Rising temperatures are causing heat stress, illness and deaths among camels in Ethiopia, Somalia and North Africa, threatening pastoral livelihoods across the Horn of Africa.

Camels are famed as the ships of the desert, but in Africa even these hardy animals are being hit by rising temperatures. Herders in the Horn of Africa and North Africa, who have increasingly turned to camels for their resilience, are now reporting heat stress, illness and deaths among their animals.

How are camels being affected in Ethiopia?

The Afar region of north-eastern Ethiopia is one of the hottest and driest places on Earth, where nomads often lead camel caravans carrying salt through the desert. Ali Umer, a camel herder from Semera in Afar, said he can see his camels suffering from extreme heat.

“I can see my camels suffering from extreme heat,” Ali Umer, a camel herder from Semera in Afar, told the BBC.

“They get blisters on their feet, their eyes become watery and the hot sand burns their skin and eats up their hair when they are sitting,” said the 40-year-old who owns around 500 camels.

“Within the past one month I have lost eight camel calves because of the extreme heat, it has become much more intense and difficult.

“Even the wind, which used to bring cool air, now carries heat,” he said, adding he had noticed these drastic changes in the temperature in recent years.

Scientists, animal welfare workers and various studies also point to stress, fatigue, dehydration and greater disease prevalence as direct impacts of extreme heat. Higher temperatures also affect camels indirectly by causing severe water loss, reducing vegetation and shrinking shaded areas.

Camels carry bricks of salt cut from the mineral-laden lakes in the Danakil Depression, where temperatures can top 50C.

A man in stripped top and sarong leading a caravan of camels carrying salt blocks through the Danakil Depression in Ethiopia's Afar region — Image caption, Camels carry bricks of salt cut from the mineral-laden lakes in the Danakil Depression, where temperatures can top 50C

Why are camels so important in these regions?

North Africa and the Horn of Africa host around 80% of the world’s largest population of dromedary camels, the one-humped animals. Over the years, farmers and cattle herders in these regions have switched to camels because of their resilience to harsh heat and drought conditions.

But a study based on the perception of camel herders in southern Ethiopia, published in 2025, showed that high temperatures and climate variability had had a detrimental impact on camel herd health.

“Respondents reported that climate change and variability have affected camels' health, productivity, and reproductive performance,” it said.

In neighbouring Somalia, the situation appears more serious. Research published in June showed that drought-related camel mortality is a widespread crisis, affecting nearly 46% of camel-owning households.

The study included nearly 6,000 pastoral households and showed that the mortality was concentrated in northern regions, with Sool reporting a “staggering mortality rate of nearly 73%”.

Two of Ali Umer’s shepherds in Ethiopia’s Afar region bathe a one-month-old camel to cool it down.

What is driving the drought crisis?

Extreme heat is the main cause behind the drought in the region, although other factors like inadequate veterinary services and animal management make things worse, experts say. An analysis by atmospheric scientists found that high temperatures in the region were behind the 2021-22 drought, as extreme heat makes water from soil and water bodies turn into vapour and plants release water into the air as vapour.

Veterinarians say they are treating more sick camels and seeing more deaths due to extreme heat and drought.

“We are seeing significant increase in cases of hyperthermia in camels as a result of which they get multiple infections,” Hassan Nuya Guyo, a veterinary officer in Marsabit county in north-eastern Kenya bordering Ethiopia, told the BBC.

“In the last two years, we have seen a more than 15% increase in camel deaths in our county due to extreme heat.”

Disease prevalence among camels and reduced milk yield from them are a result of climate change impacts including heat stress, according to another study conducted in the Horn of Africa.

Vet Hassan Nuya Guyo treats a camel in northern Kenya bordering Ethiopia — Image caption, Hassan Nuya Guyo, a vet in north-eastern Kenya, says in the last two years there has been a 15% increase in camel deaths in the area he oversees

What is happening in North Africa?

A similar story is playing out in North Africa. A study in Algeria, published this year, has shown a significant increase in camel deaths during summer heatwaves.

“Time series analysis highlights significant seasonal mortality patterns, underscoring the need for targeted interventions during high-risk periods like peak summer months; such as strategic water provisioning, supplemental feeding, and enhanced disease monitoring,” it said.

The World Meteorological Organization says extreme heat events have become a common phenomenon in several North African countries, with heatwaves having increased with a clear upward trend since 1981. It said a number of countries in the region and the Middle East reported temperatures above 50C in 2024.

The WMO’s State of the Climate in Africa 2025 report said North Africa recorded the most rapid warming of the six subregions - 0.43C per decade - between 1991 and 2025.

How do camels usually cope with heat?

Experts say camels comfortably beat the heat up to around 40C by mainly allowing their body temperature to fluctuate by several degrees throughout the day to deal with outside temperature. By doing that they avoid sweating and, combined with concentrated urine and dry faeces, it helps them minimise water loss, while their thick skin coat helps them ward off solar radiation.

Camels foraging on dried tree branches in northern Kenya — Image caption, Experts say camels comfortably beat the heat up to around 40C by mainly allowing their body temperature to fluctuate by several degrees throughout the day

But camels can also experience heat stress when temperatures rise beyond their comfort range, said Dr Mohammed Bengoumi, a scientist with the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization who specialises in camel health and works in North Africa.

“But camels can also experience heat stress when temperatures rise beyond their comfort range,” said Dr Mohammed Bengoumi, a scientist with the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), who specialises in camel health and works in North Africa.

“In many parts of the Sahara, summer temperatures now frequently exceed 50C, increasing the risk of severe heat stress, particularly when accompanied by reduced vegetation cover, water scarcity, and limited access to shade,” he told the BBC.

Professor Abdelmadjid Chehma at the University of Ghardaia in Algeria, who has conducted experimental works on camels in the Sahara Desert, has a similar conclusion.

“Our works show that prolonged day-and-night heat above 41 to 45C directly attack their cells,” he told the BBC.

“Their immune system suffers because such heat levels damage their white blood cells and other cells because of stress, they [the cells] struggle to repair themselves and end up destroying themselves.”

For camels this means that when heat stress sets in, their metabolism slows to limit internal heat production, leading to a sharp reduction in food intake, lethargy and generalised fatigue. That leads to a drop in milk production and also causes reproductive disorders.

A young female pastoralist in Kenya wearing Samburu bead jewellery (bracelets and necklaces) prepares to milk camels at dawn in 2025. — Image caption, Pastoralists who rely on camels for milk are suffering as studies show that heat stress has reduced yields

Professor Mohammed el Khasmi, an animal hydrobiology expert at the University of Casablanca in Morocco, has identified a long list of effects of heat stress on camels. These include weight loss, inflammation, muscle and bone related illnesses, chemical imbalance due to kidney malfunction, and infectious diseases caused by parasites, he said.

While extreme heat is the primary culprit, experts say its impacts become severe when other factors such as loss of vegetation and water, lack of shaded areas and inadequate veterinary services add up.

Why are herders moving their camels?

This is why many herders in Ethiopia have moved their camels from the northern region, where the animals were historically found, to the south where water and vegetation are relatively available, experts there say.

“And this is not the seasonal movement of the herders,” said Daniel Gelan, professor and pastoralist development researcher with Vision University in Ethiopia.

“They are leaving the northern region for good because they can no longer sustain camel herding there because of extreme heat and drought,” he told the BBC.

The Horn of Africa has been recovering from the longest and most severe recorded drought spanning from 2020 to 2023, but it is now seeing another round of harsh conditions, according to charity organisation Oxfam. It said water prices in some parts of Somalia had risen by more than 2,000% because of the drought.

Umer, the camel herder in Afar, said he was worried that an outbreak of disease could start killing his adult camels at any time now.

Herder Ali Umer, in a pink shirt and purple patterned sarong, holds a stick over his shoulders. Behind him can be seen his camels in the Afar region of north-eastern Ethiopia — Image caption, Ali Umer says that within the last month he has lost eight camel calves because of the extreme heat

His concern is valid, according to Prof Chehma.

“While camels remain the livestock herders' last line of defence against the desert, the unprecedented intensity of current heatwaves directly threatens their vital functions, turning this historically resilient animal into a climate victim,” he said.

Additional reporting by BBC Amharic's Firehiwot Kassa