Between famine and violence, on the shores of Lake Chad, “We scream like skinned people”

“We scream like flayed people” is a photographic project by Adrienne Surprenant on the effects of climate change in Africa. From 2021, it notably covers the floods in South Sudan and the consequences of water stress in Tunisia. In 2023, she will travel to the shores of Lake Chad, on which more than 20 million people depend.

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Since the 1960s, Lake Chad has lost 90% of its volume. Doomed to disappear, it has suffered torrential and devastating rains since 2018. Symptomatic of climate change, these phenomena amplify population movements and insecurity in this region of the Sahel. The desertification of the land around Lake Chad and the silting of the banks make land exploitation more difficult. To survive, residents have no choice but to move to fertile land, which has emerged with the receding of the lake. These new territories also attract armed groups, seduced by the lure of profit. “It happened that [le volume de] water increases »confides a veteran of the Nigerian jihadist group Boko Haram. This caused us difficulties (…), so we launched more attacks, which caused more chaos. ».

Adrienne Surpenant was born in Gatineau, Canada, in 1992. After studying photography at Dawson College, she tackled long-term subjects, such as in Nicaragua between 2014 and 2015, then between Cameroon and the Central African Republic, from 2015 to 2021.

Choukou Kilelom, 40, on the island of Nahar, on Lake Chad, Chad, April 2, 2023. Three of her children were kidnapped during an attack by the jihadist group Boko Haram in 2014. Refugee on the continent for four years, she returned to the island, driven by hunger: “We were afraid, but we had no choice. » In Nahar, his fields only bring him a meager harvest of green beans.
A Kouri ox, a bovine that only exists in the Lake Chad region, near an island, April 3, 2023.
Traps at the entrance to a river, on the road between Koulkimé and Baga Sola, on the banks of Lake Chad, April 1, 2023. Following the damage from the 2022 floods, the International Committee of the Cross -Rouge (ICRC) financed the construction of sandbag dams, on the island of Koulfoua, Chad, April 3, 2023.
Harmata Hassan, 12, and Morom Mama wash dishes in Lake Chad, Baga Sola, April 1, 2023.
Children return from an excursion to a neighboring island with fish and branches to make a fire, on the island of Nahar, on Lake Chad, April 2, 2023.
A boat leaves the island of Nahar, on Lake Chad, Chad, April 2, 2023.
Malimiti Mahamat, 35, shows his “Boko Haram disengagement card” in Koulkimé, on the shores of Lake Chad, on April 1, 2023. He joined the jihadist group in 2014, due to his frustration with the government before leaving the group. “Our lands were once fertile,” he said. Now there is not much to see in our harvests. » He suffers from hunger, but no longer has the possibility of returning to Boko Haram because, he claims, he would be killed. “We don’t need anyone to feed us,” he said. We need a place to farm and fish. We want to take care of ourselves. »
Without land or work, Ahmat Souleyman, 30, once joined Boko Haram. In Baga Sola, Chad, April 5, 2023. “Life was good at that time,” he confides. We had food, money in the bank and in the trunks of cars. Life was good with all of this in our hands. » “When the water was low,” he adds, “we did not touch civilians or their property. When the water rose, we had difficulties and so did the civilians. So we increased the attacks and chaos ensued. »
People unload a commercial boat on Koulfoua Island on Lake Chad, Chad, April 3, 2023.
Mohamat Kollé Ali, 21, lost his house in the floods of summer 2022. He does not have the means to rebuild it. In Baga Sola, Chad, April 1, 2023.
Mohamat Kollé Ali, 21, opened a breach in the surrounding wall of the family home to allow water to drain, following the floods of July and August 2022. In Baga Sola, in shore of Lake Chad, April 1, 2023.
A herder directs his animals into the water of a creek of Lake Chad, in Baga Sola, April 1, 2023. Kouri cattle feed on grasses on the banks of Lake Chad, in Baga Sola, Chad, on April 1, 2023. April 1, 2023.
A thobe dries on a tree by Lake Chad in Baga Sola, Chad, March 31, 2023.
“Before, there was less water and we had peace.” Mbodou Chaukou, 35-year-old breeder. In Baga Sola, on the shores of Lake Chad, April 1, 2023.

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