‘When it’s this hot, time stands still’: surviving west Africa’s blistering heat

Street vendors endure the heat at a market in Abobo, a suburb of Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Photograph: Issouf Sanogo/AFP/Getty Images

An attribution study this week has confirmed the link between the climate crisis and the intense heatwave in the Gulf of Guinea this year, with the heat index reaching 50C (122F) at times. What is the best way to cope with such high temperatures?

Tarly, a 52-year-old carpenter, has seen his colleagues faint due to the heat in his home suburb of Abobo in Ivory Coast in recent months. “The first thing I do when I wake up is shower. But when I get on the gbakka [a popular urban minibus], I’m already sweating, and it stays that way until the afternoon.”