When yet another drought wiped out his flock five years ago, Toro, a Fulani shepherd in Niger, decided to migrate to the capital Niamey, where he found work selling cell phones instead. Climate change has wreaked havoc in Niger, bringing floods, droughts, spikes in temperature and food shortages -- buffeting the lives and livelihoods of millions of farmers in the west African nation. Niger's some 18 million inhabitants are no strangers to hardship, with the landlocked former French colony already one of the world's least developed countries, ranking 187th on the UN Human Development Index.



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