Weather extremes and related natural disasters are exacerbating the problem of modern slavery. The situation is particularly dramatic in Africa, as local military and criminal organizations take advantage of the increasing impoverishment and displacement of people to force labor and marriages. There is no single concrete definition of modern slavery. For the purposes of quantitative estimates, the International Labor Organization (ILO), which works to protect workers’ rights and reduce child labor on a daily basis, has suggested that victims of forced labor and forced marriage be combined under the term. The category also includes human trafficking, serfdom, forced begging and de facto slavery, which paradoxically still exists in the world.

In Africa, slavery by descent is a specific problem. This is a situation in which a family’s ancestors were once enslaved by other families, and offspring born into slavery inherit the status of being privately owned, usually in the maternal line. Thus, entire generations of people are subjected to exploitation and never gain the right to personal and financial autonomy – they are inherited, sold and given as gifts, and are not paid for their labor. This pathology is perpetually alive in Chad, Mauritania, Niger, Mali and Sudan.