When the perpetrator is the climate

Climate change and armed conflict increasingly intersect in humanitarian settings. While the sector is now alert to climate-related risks – particularly in disaster response, resilience programming, and displacement governance – the ways these risks are interpreted and operationalized vary across institutional mandates and operational contexts. In protection practice within conflict-affected settings, climate impacts are still often framed primarily as “conflict multipliers” rather than direct drivers of civilian harm. This narrow lens risks overlooking the very insecurities communities experience most acutely: displacement, restricted movement, isolation, and livelihood collapse. In this post, researcher and former ICRC delegate Lina Aburas argues that our current conflict-centered analysis has a dangerous blind spot. Drawing on her experience in northeast Nigeria, she explores how communities define their own insecurity amid climate and conflict pressures. Practitioner and community perspectives reveal how climate-related hazards reshape mobility, access to livelihoods and assistance, and exposure to protection risks in ways not fully captured by prevailing conflict-centered analyses. Centering these lived experiences reveals that adapting humanitarian action isn’t about mission creep or expanding mandates; it’s about fundamentally shifting how we interpret and prioritize the risks already in front of us.

Lac Tchad, village de Fourkouloum. Des personnes déplacées atteignent le village après avoir fui leur lieu d'origine près de la frontière nigériane en raison de la violence accrue. Lake Chad, Fourkouloum village. Groups of displaced persons reached the village after fleeing their places of origin near the Nigerian border due to increased violence. Certaines personnes ont dû marcher quelques jours sur la route, d'autres jusqu'à deux semaines. Some people had to walk for a few days on the road, others for up to two weeks.