Fatou Samba welcomes us into her former home, now eaten away by the rising Atlantic Ocean. Part of the house was recently destroyed again, despite the piles of tires and sandbags stacked below in an attempt to block the waves. In vain!
At COP28 in 2023, the creation of a dedicated Loss and Damage Fund was approved. The idea is to ensure a degree of climate justice between nations, since some suffer far more from climate change than others, even though they are far less responsible for greenhouse gas emissions.
Africa, for example, produces barely 4% of global emissions—yet countries like Senegal are bearing the full brunt of coastal erosion.
Our journalist, Véronique Rebeyrotte, first went to Bargny, a town of 70,000 inhabitants located about 30 kilometers from Dakar. You will hear the sea a lot in her report—the sea that rises by 2 to 3 meters every year. And despite makeshift barriers and piles of tires laid at the foot of the houses, the buildings cannot withstand the relentless assault of the waves.
Fatou Samba welcomes us into her former home, eroded by the rising ocean. Part of the house was recently destroyed again, despite the tires and sandbags piled below in an attempt to block the waves.
« This is the family home. In August 2025, two buildings were carried away by the sea. Each room was occupied, but now it’s uninhabitable. It’s dangerous. We are afraid, we are constantly threatened by the advancing sea, and so far, we have no solutions. »
« Bargny has no future »
Daouda Gueye is the president of the Network of Associations for the Protection of the Environment and Nature:
« What is very serious is that we ran simulations using calculations from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the United States. By 2050, the sea will advance up to the national road, meaning that half of Bargny will disappear. »
« The mosques, places of worship, cemeteries… everything has vanished. But what is most alarming is what the people are going through because their homes are destroyed and no real solutions have been found to properly relocate them. »
Source: radiofrance
