‘They are overlooked by everybody’: elders in Ethiopia bear brunt of the climate crisis

‘I’m just waiting for her to die’ … Loko and her mother, Saku Shuna, 89, in the camp for people displaced by drought outside Dubuluk in southern Ethiopia. Photograph: Fred Harter

After two and a half years of drought, rain has finally returned to Borena in southern Ethiopia. Recent downpours have turned the landscape green and produced enough grass for grazing animals.

But they have come too late for 89-year-old Saku Shuna, who lies in an airless tent, cradled by her daughter Loko. Like the other 28,000 people in this camp for the displaced outside the town of Dubuluk, she was a herder who relied on cattle. She came here after thirst, hunger and disease claimed her herd a year ago.