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The world’s largest man-made lake is being parched by drought, depriving Zambia of its electricity
Tindor Sikunyongana is trying to run a welding business which these days means buying a diesel generator with costly fuel he can’t always afford.
Like everyone in Zambia, Sikunyongana is facing a daily struggle to find and afford electricity during a climate-induced energy crisis that’s robbed the southern African country of almost all its power.
“Only God knows when this crisis will end,” said Sikunyongana. His generator ran out of diesel and spluttered to a halt as he spoke. “You see what I mean?” he said.
Themba Hadebe / AP
What caused electricity blackouts in Zambia?
Zambia’s worst electricity blackouts in memory have been caused by a severe drought in the region that has left the critical Kariba dam, the source of Sikunyongana’s woes, with insufficient water to run its hydroelectric turbines. Kariba is the largest man-made lake in the world by volume and lies 200 kilometers (125 miles) south of Lusaka on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The massive dam wall was built in the 1950s and more than 80 workers died during construction. It was meant to revolutionize the countries’ energy supplies by trapping the water of the Zambezi River, turning a valley into a huge lake and providing an endless supply of renewable hydroelectric power.
That’s not the case anymore as months of drought brought by the naturally occurring El Nino weather pattern and exacerbated by warming temperatures have put Zambia’s hydroelectric station on the brink of completely shutting down for the first time.
The water level is so low that only one of the six turbines on Zambia’s side of the dam is able to operate, cutting generation to less than 10% of normal output. Zambia relies on Kariba for more than 80% of its national electricity supply, and the result is Zambians have barely a few hours of power a day at the best of times. Often, areas are going without electricity for days.
Edla Musonda is so exasperated that she’s taken to lugging her entire desktop computer — hard drive, monitor, everything — to a local cafe so she can work.
Musonda and others cram into the Mercato Cafe in the Zambian capital of Lusaka, not for the sandwiches or the ambiance but because it has a diesel generator. Tables are cluttered with power strips and cables as people plug in cell phones, laptops and in Musonda’s case, a home office. This is the only way her small travel business is going to survive.
Less than half of Zambia’s 20 million people had access to electricity before Kariba’s problems. Millions more have now been forced to adjust as mothers find different ways to cook for their families and children do their homework by candlelight. The most damaging impact is during the daylight hours when small businesses, the backbone of the country, struggle to operate.
“This is also going to increase poverty levels in the country,” said economist Trevor Hambayi, who fears Zambia’s economy will shrink dramatically if the power crisis is prolonged. It’s a warning call to the Zambian government and the continent in general about the danger to development of relying heavily on one source of energy that is so climate dependent.
Climate change and extreme weather
The power crisis is a bigger blow to the economy and the battle against poverty than the lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic, said Zambia Association of Manufacturers president Ashu Sagar.
Africa contributes the least to global warming but is the most vulnerable continent to extreme weather events and climate change as poor countries can’t meet the high financials costs of adapting. This year’s drought in southern Africa is the worst in decades and has parched crops and left millions hungry, causing Zambia and others to already declare national disasters and ask for aid.
Hydroelectric power accounts for 17% of Africa’s energy generation, but that figure is expected to rise to 23% by 2040, according to the International Energy Agency. Zambia is not alone in that hydroelectric power makes up over 80% of the energy mix in Mozambique, Malawi, Uganda, Ethiopia and Congo, even as experts warn it will become more unreliable.
“Extreme weather patterns, including prolonged droughts, make it clear that overreliance on hydro is no longer sustainable,” said Carlos Lopes, a professor at the Mandela School of Public Governance at the University of Cape Town in South Africa.
The Zambian government has urged people and businesses to embrace solar power. But many Zambians can’t afford the technology, while the government itself has turned to more familiar but polluting diesel generators to temporarily power hospitals and other buildings. It has also said it will increase its electricity from coal-fired stations out of necessity. While neighboring Zimbabwe has also lost much of its electricity generation from Kariba and blackouts there are also frequent, it gets a greater share of its power from coal plants.
Themba Hadebe / AP
Changes in the Kariba dam
At Kariba, the 128-meter-high (420-feet) dam wall is almost completely exposed. A dry, reddish-brown stain near the top marks where the water once reached in better times more than a decade ago.
Leonard Siamubotu, who has taken tourists on boat cruises on the picturesque lake for more than 20 years, has seen the change. As the water level dropped, it exposed old, dead trees that were completely submerged for years after the wall was built. “I’m seeing this tree for the first time,” he said of one that’s appeared in the middle of the lake.
The lake’s water level naturally rises and recedes according to the season, but generally it should go up by around six meters after the rains. It moved by less than 30 centimeters after the last rainy season barely materialized, authorities said. They hope this year’s rains, which should start in November, will be good. But they estimate that it’ll still take three good years for Kariba to fully recover its hydroelectric capability.
Experts say there’s also no guarantee those rains will come and it’s dangerous to rely on a changing climate given Zambia has had drought-induced power problems before, and the trend is they are getting worse.
“That’s not a solution … just to sit and wait for nature,” said Hambayi.
When Jermain Charlo‘s cellphone went silent in June 2018, her family suspected something was wrong. “She was very active on social media … she posted about everything,” Valenda Morigeau, Charlo’s aunt, told “48 Hours.” “So for her to not be active on social media, then I knew something was not right.” When Charlo didn’t respond to calls or texts, Morigeau, sick with worry, reported her missing to the Missoula Police Department. Six years later, Charlo still has not been found.
Valenda Morigeau
During that time, the Missoula Police Department and other agencies have been hard at work. What have investigators discovered about what may have happened to Charlo? And will she ever be found?
The story begins on the night Charlo was last seen.
June 15, 2018: Last night out at The Badlander bar
Missoula Police Department
On the night she disappeared, Jermain Charlo was at The Badlander bar in Missoula, Montana, around midnight. She’s captured in the alley behind the bar on security camera footage excerpt, shared exclusively with “48 Hours.” Charlo, second from left, is highlighted.
Detectives spoke to multiple people who were in the alley, including the man standing behind Charlo. He’s Michael DeFrance, Charlo’s ex-boyfriend and the father of her two children. Charlo and DeFrance had plans together that night, though it’s not clear why they met up or what they discussed.
June 15, 2018, just before midnight: Disappearing into the night
Missoula Poilce Department
Just before midnight on June 15, Charlo and DeFrance walked away in the alley behind The Badlander bar, as seen in this screenshot from security footage.
Where did they go next? When investigators asked Michael DeFrance that question, he told them the same thing he told Charlo’s family when they asked: that he and Charlo had gotten into his truck and then he’d dropped her off at the Orange Street Food Farm, a supermarket about a five-minute drive from The Badlander.
In a subsequent police interview, however, DeFrance amended his story. He said that in fact he’d dropped Charlo off not at the Orange Street Food Farm itself, but in a residential area eight blocks west of the store. He said he dropped her off there because Charlo told him she was staying with a friend named “Cassidy” who lived nearby.
Detectives found the change in DeFrance’s stories interesting. They also were unable to find anyone in Charlo’s life named “Cassidy.” It turned out that Charlo didn’t really intend to stay at a friend’s place that night, but at the apartment of her then-boyfriend Jacob, who lived in the area. Jacob was out of town but had told Charlo she could stay at his place.
Jermain’s family suspects that she did not want to tell DeFrance about her relationship with Jacob and may have lied to him about “Cassidy.”
June 16, 2018, just before 1 a.m.: Jacob tries to call Jermain Charlo
Valenda Morigeau
Shortly before 1 a.m. that night, Charlo’s boyfriend Jacob attempted to call her cell. She never picked up the phone — instead, it rang several times before going to voicemail. Jacob told police he suspected that somebody purposely ended the call.
Though detectives never considered Jacob a suspect — he was out of the state that night — they did talk to him further to see what else he might know. He told them that the day before Charlo disappeared, she told him “that Michael had been yelling at her, asking if she was dating anyone and wanted to get back together with her.”
DeFrance has also never been named a suspect in Charlo’s disappearance.
June 17, 2018: Jermain Charlo reported missing
CBS News
On June 17, 2018, Charlo’s mother reported her missing to the Tribal Police Department on the Flathead Reservation, but because Jermain went missing in Missoula, it would have to be reported to the Missoula Police Department.
Family called Missoula police but learned that the report had to be made at the station in person, not over the phone. So on June 20, 2018, Valenda Morigeau, Charlo’s aunt, made the drive to Missoula and spoke with an officer to file an official report.
Late June 2018: The community searches
KPAX
After Charlo disappeared, her family took matters into their own hands and contacted local organization The Lifeguard Group for help. Volunteers came out in support to search for Charlo. This was just the first of many searches the community would hold over the months and years to come.
“We’ve told the family that we’re not going to stop no matter what. And we will search for Jermain as if she’s alive, until we find her,” said Lowell Hochhalter, president and co-founder of The Lifeguard Group.
June 26, 2018: The lead detective
CBS News
The Missoula Police Department’s investigation began the day Morigeau reported her niece missing. However, the first detective assigned only worked the case briefly before he had scheduled time off. It wasn’t until June 26, 10 days after Charlo disappeared, that Det. Guy Baker was assigned to the case. He would doggedly lead the investigation for the next six years, determined to find Charlo.
“I’m very much committed to finding her,” Baker told “48 Hours.” “I wanna bring justice to Jermain and hold accountable who’s responsible.”
June 27, 2018: The cellphone data
CBS News
On June 27, 2018, detectives obtained data linked to Charlo’s cellphone. The data indicated that between the hours of 2 a.m. and 10 a.m. in the early morning hours of June 16, 2018, after she disappeared, Charlo’s cell was pinging off a cell tower in the area known as Evaro Hill.
Evaro Hill is a rugged, heavily forested area north of Missoula, and it’s where DeFrance, Charlo’s ex-boyfriend, was living at the time. DeFrance told investigators that he’d dropped Charlo off in Missoula around 1 a.m. So, why was her phone pinging north of the city hours later? DeFrance changed his story and told investigators that Charlo’s phone was with him.
Missoula County Deputy Attorney Brittany Williams told “48 Hours,” “In a subsequent interview, [DeFrance] provided a statement that she left her cellphone and he attempted to go through her cellphone and he was unable to get into her cellphone.”
Then DeFrance told authorities that two days later on June 18 — while Charlo’s family was desperately calling law enforcement for help — he discarded Charlo’s phone in Idaho at mile marker 94 on Highway 12. Law enforcement searched the area but never found the phone.
“The phone’s never been recovered,” confirms Baker. Charlo’s family wonders why DeFrance would throw Jermain’s phone away. Baker declined to comment on a possible motive for disposing of the phone. “48 Hours” requested an interview with DeFrance through his attorney. He declined our request.
June 27, 2018: Michael DeFrance’s mother speaks to police
On the same day that the cellphone data was obtained, officers from the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office went to DeFrance’s property and spoke with his mother Jennifer DeFrance. According to police documents, Jennifer DeFrance told an officer that Charlo had never been to the residence. She also reported that “Michael was still in love with Jermain and wanted to get back together with her.”
Summer 2018: “Swept away in an instant”
CBS News
Over the remainder of the summer, detectives investigated the idea that Charlo may have been a victim of human trafficking.
“We had some information early on that there might have been some people in Missoula from out of state that were trying to buy a girl,” Baker told “48 Hours.” “And I was thinking there was a connection there.”
Williams described the trafficking situation in the state. “I think people have an idea that Montana is rural and undeveloped, and we don’t have major crimes that occur here,” she said. “But the fact of the matter is, we have one of the largest interstates that runs through our state right here through Missoula, Montana … there are people who can be swept away in an instant.”
Eventually, investigators were able to rule out the idea that Charlo was a victim of human trafficking. Williams told “48 Hours” in 2024, “I think that we have enough evidence through this investigation that lends itself to believe something else has happened to her.”
August 2, 2018: A warrant for Michael DeFrance’s property
An officer with the Missoula County Sheriff’s Department filed a search warrant application on August 2, 2018, that stated the officer had reason to believe that a crime had been committed in Missoula.
The application asked a judge to approve a search of DeFrance’s property on Evaro Hill. The officer hoped to “visually observe and simultaneously video record by ground or air, at any time of the day or night, the outside of the premises including all grounds.” It also asked for thermal imaging of the property.
Documents show that the search warrant application was approved by a judge, but officers declined to comment on the results of any of their searches of the DeFrance property. They do confirm that Charlo has not been found, and Michael DeFrance has never been named a suspect or charged with anything in relation to her disappearance.
Oct. 2, 2018: Firearms seized
District Court of Montana
In October 2018, police conducted another search of DeFrance’s Evaro Hill property. At this point, Charlo had been missing for more than three months.
On the property officers found and seized guns including the ones pictured. DeFrance had a prior conviction that prohibited him from owning firearms. In May 2013, DeFrance had pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of Partner or Family Member Assault against Charlo, his then-girlfriend. When DeFrance was sentenced for this incident, part of his sentence was a loss of his firearm rights.
According to a 2013 police report, DeFrance admitted to hitting Charlo with an open hand, then twice more with his fist. Charlo reported that DeFrance had shoved her onto the hood of his van, punched her in the ear, the temple, and the cheekbone, and then spit in her face and told her she was horrible.
In October 2018 Baker asked DeFrance if he was aware he wasn’t supposed to have firearms because of his previous conviction. According to court documents, DeFrance replied, “I was never clear on that.”
2019-2021: The trail goes cold
CBS News
In October 2018, Charlo’s family and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes put her information on a billboard. They hoped that someone would drive by and recognize Jermain. For six years, her gaze has haunted drivers as they travel down that road.
Baker wouldn’t tell “48 Hours” much about his investigation, as it is ongoing and many of the documents are sealed. But he insists the case never truly went cold. He has been consistently searching for Charlo over the years, and the investigation has never stopped. He is committed to finding Jermain.
“I guess when I see that billboard, I’m frustrated,” he said. “I’ve never worked a case like this before. We’ve tried to uncover and turn over every rock possible.”
July 28, 2021: Michael DeFrance arrested on firearms possession charges
In July 2021, Michael DeFrance was arrested for possession of the firearms police had confiscated in 2018. The case was investigated by the FBI. In October 2021, an indictment charged DeFrance with one count of prohibited person in possession of firearms and ammunition, and three counts of false statement during a firearms transaction.
April 26, 2023: Michael DeFrance goes on trial for firearms violations
DeFrance was found guilty of all four counts of firearms-related violations after his two-day trial in federal court. Charlo’s mother and her aunt Valenda Morigeau both testified to the nature of Charlo and DeFrance’s relationship around the time of the 2013 partner or family member assault conviction, and Baker spoke about finding the guns at DeFrance’s residence.
DeFrance was sentenced in September 2023 to 21 months in prison and was given a lifetime ban on firearms and ammunition. On the same day, DeFrance filed an appeal. He has not served any time pending that appeal.
Today: hoping for justice
Jen Murphy
Jermain Charlo’s family still hopes that one day she might be found, though they no longer believe she is alive. For Charlo’s aunt Dani Matt, justice for Charlo means “bringing her home, and letting her rest with our family up on the hill.”
“I will never stop looking for her,” said Morigeau. “I’ve met so many families that have had a loved one disappear. And I want other families to know that, like, it’s OK to keep pushing and it’s OK to keep their name out there. We have to fight for justice for our loved ones.”
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Alex Salmond, former Scottish First Minister who sought Scotland’s independence, dies at 69
Alex Salmond, the former first minister of Scotland who for decades championed Scotland’s independence from the U.K., has died. He was 69.
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer paid tribute to Salmond, calling him a “monumental figure” of both Scottish and British politics.
“He leaves behind a lasting legacy,” Starmer said in a statement shared on X. “As first minister of Scotland, he cared deeply about Scotland’s heritage, history and culture, as well as the communities he represented.”
KEN JACK / Getty Images
Salmond served as first minister of Scotland from 2007 to 2014, and was leader of the Scottish National Party on two occasions, from 1990 to 2000, and from 2004 to 2014. Salmond, as then leader of the Scottish National Party, led the independence campaign in the referendum in 2014, but lost, gaining 45% of the vote.
Salmond resigned from the SNP in 2018 in the wake of sexual harassment allegations. He subsequently formed a new party called Alba.
Former U.K. Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that Salmond was a “huge figure in our politics.”
“While I disagreed with him on the constitutional question, there was no denying his skill in debate or his passion for politics,” Sunak said on X. “May he rest in peace.”
