Few places have been as transformed by climate change as the tiny country of Djibouti.

Sandwiched between Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia at the strategic point on the Horn of Africa, the former French colony is one of the hottest and driest on earth.

It relies on food imported from Ethiopia to feed its population of one million, there is barely any water and electricity comes from abroad.

Yet it wasn’t always like this.

When Djibouti obtained independence from France in 1977, its ambitions were not only for political independence, the new nation was also going to rebuild and make its mark on the world.

Djibouti’s leaders turned their eye to the lush and fertile area south of today’s airport, an area named after the famed Ambouli river which bisected the district.

Farmers from Yemen were encouraged to settle here. They would, it was hoped, produce enough food to feed the entire nation – and brighten the country with the flowers they would grow.

Fifty years later it is impossible to see how this was ever thought plausible.