Sahel (region, Africa)
The Sahel is a vast geographic region in Africa that lies directly south of the Sahara Desert, extending approximately 2,400 miles (3,862 kilometers) from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea. This semi-arid zone encompasses parts of several countries, including Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Sudan, and Eritrea, but lacks strictly defined boundaries. Historically, the Sahel has served as a cultural and economic crossroads, where diverse communities have interacted, blending traditions from both northern Africa and central Africa.
Currently, the region faces significant challenges, including the adverse effects of climate change, which have exacerbated food insecurity and poverty. Political instability, internal conflicts, and criminal activities, including terrorism, further complicate the situation. The Sahel's population, estimated at around 80 million as of 2018, largely depends on agriculture, hunting, and herding, yet economic development remains hindered by low per-capita GDP and underutilized natural resources. Environmental concerns are pressing, as the region has experienced severe droughts and unpredictable rainfall patterns, leading to land degradation and increased humanitarian crises.
Despite these troubles, there have been efforts towards stability, with regional organizations like ECOWAS and the African Union working to address governance issues and support democratic movements. International assistance, particularly from the European Union, has also aimed to promote stability in the Sahel, considering its strategic importance in relation to migration routes to Europe.
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Sahel (region, Africa)
The Sahel is a large geographic region of Africa located to the immediate south of the Sahara, the largest desert in the world. Spanning from the coast of the Atlantic Ocean across Africa to the Red Sea, the Sahel measures approximately 2,400 miles (3,862 kilometers) at its widest point and covers a total area of about 1.179 million square miles (3.053 million square kilometers). Parts of Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Sudan, and Eritrea fall within the Sahel, which does not have strictly defined limits. Historically, the region has acted as a buffer zone separating Africa’s arid Sahara region from its more fertile central tropics.
Long functioning as a place of multicultural economic and social interaction, the Sahel currently faces numerous significant challenges. The effects of climate change have impacted its environment, contributing to the food insecurity and poverty that have long troubled the region. Though the Sahel has many peaceful areas, some parts are also rife with political tension, wars and rebellions, criminal activity, and terrorism.
Background
The Sahel’s arc-like shape is home to transitional geographic features, which give way from the hot, barren sands of the Sahara to a tropical landscape defined by dense, rich soils. Rocky topography dominates the Sahel’s semi-arid surface features, which rise to isolated highland and mountain pockets where much of the region’s rainfall occurs. Some definitions classify these high-rising areas as separate from the Sahel because ecologically distinct plants and animals call these areas home.
Vegetation becomes more dense moving south through the Sahelian zone, with its semi-arid terrain yielding to tree-dotted savannah grasslands and wooded areas. Six principal rivers serve the Sahel: from west to east, they are the Senegal, Gambia, Niger, Bani, Ubangi, and Chari. The Ubangi and Chari river systems flow to Lake Chad, which once measured about 9,650 square miles (about 25,000 square kilometers) but has withered away since the 1960s as the combined result of irrigation and increasingly dry weather conditions.
Historically, the Sahel was a place where various cultures met and mixed, with Arabic and Islamic peoples from northern Africa intermingling with nomads and the aboriginal tribes of central Africa. During the colonial era, France controlled a large swath of Sahelian territory, and Great Britain occupied parts of its eastern reaches. After the European powers receded from Africa and granted sovereignty to their former colonies over the course of the twentieth century, the Sahel witnessed low levels of economic development, and its population largely continued to rely on traditional subsistence activities.
Some Sahelian peoples have traditionally traversed the boundary between the Sahel and the Sahara, coexisting in both regions. Examples include the Hausa and Tuareg cultures. Others have remained entirely within Sahelian confines, with the nomadic Fulani cattle herders and the Dogon people ranking among two of the best-known examples. The Fulani have largely adopted the Muslim faith, while the Dogon retain their traditional beliefs. They garnered international attention in the mid-twentieth century for their advanced astronomical knowledge.
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In 2018, the Sahelian population numbered approximately eighty million. More than 80 percent of those people remained reliant on small-scale agriculture, hunting, and herding for survival. In 2024, one-fourth of the Sahel's population of 94 million (24.7 million) needed huminatrian assistance and protection, which was an increase of 10 million people from 2020. Population density remains relatively low, and the Sahel houses few major cities. According to an economic analysis published by the Population Reference Bureau in 2015, the Sahel has a very low per-capita gross domestic product (GDP) spanning from about $900 in its most impoverished areas to approximately $3,000 in its most affluent. The relatively meager wealth the region generates mainly comes from minerals, oil, and other natural resources, but these assets remain underdeveloped. This is mostly due to the political turmoil, internal instability, and corruption that remain common in many Sahelian nations.
Scientists believe that climate change is having a profound impact on the Sahel, which has historically seen wide weather pattern variations and unpredictable levels of rainfall. According to reports from the United Nations (UN), the Sahel experienced a terrible drought from 1970 to the mid-1990s. Since then, the Sahel has alternated between severe drought and heavy rainfall leading to localized flooding. This flooding has resulted in widespread land degradation affecting more than three-quarters of its surface area. These factors have contributed to widespread famine and food insecurity, which experts believe will worsen in the coming decades. If current trends continue, the Sahel’s average temperature could rise by 5.4 to 9 degrees Fahrenheit (3 to 5 degrees Celsius), further disrupting its already unpredictable weather patterns. The UN also expects the Sahelian population to double by 2040, creating the conditions for a potentially catastrophic future humanitarian crisis.
While economic underdevelopment may be the most visible result of the political instability that has long plagued the Sahel, a fragile government, corruption, and lawlessness also continue to take their toll in other ways. Analysts believe that the Sahel is a hotbed of illegal weapon, drug, and human trafficking, much of which is conducted by organized groups that operate with impunity due to the general lack of effective regional law enforcement. High levels of Islamic extremist activity also began in the Sahel during the 2010s, with groups like Boko Haram committing high-profile atrocities that prompted military counteraction.
Though the international community has continued to seek answers to the difficult challenges facing the Sahel, the region has seen some movement toward stability. Citizen protests against corrupt dictatorial regimes have laid the foundations for an eventual transition toward democratic rule, while more prominent and prosperous nations in the area have offered military and diplomatic support to Sahelian nations where governments have unconstitutionally resisted change in an attempt to retain authority and legitimacy. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the African Union (AU) recently cooperated to prevent military dictators from illegally seizing control of the Mali and Burkina Faso governments. They took similar action in The Gambia in 2017, when parliamentary elections necessitated a contentious transfer of power. The European Union (EU) has also offered financial support to governmental and nongovernmental organizations seeking to stabilize the Sahel, given the region’s relative proximity to Mediterranean routes leading to the southern European mainland.
Bibliography
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