Sudan’s Nile fishermen worry as climate change means fewer fish
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Loading... - Simon Gatwech
- 04 Apr 2023
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Al-Nimeiry Musa Mohammad has spent 25 years fishing on the Nile River and he has never been so worried about the future. Catches are dwindling and more fishermen are seeking other sources of income.
“I know many people who left the profession because of a lack of fish. Some of them travelled elsewhere to find work,” the 45-year-old said, standing by the banks of the Nile just north of a fish market in Omdurman, the twin city of the capital Khartoum, where the Blue Nile and White Nile join.
“Nowadays I catch around a quarter of what I used to catch. The last time I went out onto the river, I caught about 60kg [132lb] of fish, but sometimes it can be as low as 10kg [22lb],” Mohammad said at al-Mawrada, Omdurman’s biggest fish market. The Nile’s fish stocks are plummeting, studies have shown, with rising temperatures fuelled by climate change, overfishing, and a lack of state regulation cited as factors by researchers.
While United Nations studies say Sudan’s fisheries make up relatively little of the East African nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) – a precise breakdown is unavailable – the industry provides jobs and is a key source of food and nutrition for a population of about 46 million. Sudanese fishermen like Mohammad, as well as academics, fear that not only are fish numbers decreasing but some species are disappearing entirely from the Nile. Read More…
