Sahel
The Sahel or Sahel is an ecoclimatic and biogeographic zone in the north of the African continent. It limits to the north with the Sahara desert and to the south with the Sudanese savannah, being a transition zone between the two. In the west-east direction, it stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea, traversing the entire continent.
It is developed in approximately ten countries. These are: (from west to east) southern Mauritania, northern Senegal, central Mali, northern Burkina Faso, southern Niger, northern Nigeria, central Chad and central Sudan, Eritrea, and northern Ethiopia.
Throughout the history of Africa, the region has been home to some of the most advanced kingdoms, who benefited from the trade that traversed the desert. Collectively, these states became known as the Sahelian kingdoms (see the History section below).
Etymology
The Arabic term sāḥil (ساحل) literally means “edge, coast”, which describes the appearance of the vegetation of the Sahel as a line delimiting the sea of sand of the Sahara.
Physical geography
The Sahel is a strip several hundred to a thousand kilometers wide and 5,400 km long from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea, covering an area of 3,053,200 km².
The topography of the Sahel is mainly flat. The region is mainly in a range between 200 and 400 meters of altitude. There are many isolated plateaus and mountainous areas.
Highlights the Darfur Plateau in Sudan
Climate
Its climate is warm semi-arid. In the Koppen climate classification: BSh. It is characterized by scant rainfall and two marked seasons: one long, dry and winter, and the other rainy, between July and September, short and summer.
Climatically, the Sahel is the strip limited to the north by the annual isohyets of 100-150 mm, and to the south by the 500-600 mm one. According to other authors, between 200 mm and 700 mm.
Throughout the XX century, it has been possible to observe a shift of both lines to the south:
- In the period 1968-1997, the 150 mm isoyet has moved between 50 and 100 km further south regarding its position during the period 1931-1960, increasing the desertification of this strip, in which there are several major cities: Nuakchot, Mauritania; Agadez, Niger; Khartoum, Sudan.
- The same can be said of the southern Sahel boundary: It has also advanced south, but with a slightly lower distance, on average.
However, since 1982 rainfall has increased, and in some places, so has vegetation.
Flora and fauna
It is a transitional ecoregion of semi-arid grasslands, savannahs, steppes, and thorny scrub areas.
The Sahel is mainly covered by grasslands and savannahs, with areas of forest and scrub. Grass and grass are evenly distributed throughout the area, dominated by annual grass species such as Cenchrus biflorus, Schoenefeldia gracilis and Aristida stipoides. Regarding the trees, the dominant species are different types of acacia, being Acacia tortilis the most common along with Acacia senegal and Acacia laeta. Other tree species include Commiphora africana, Balanites aegyptiaca, Faidherbia albida and Boscia senegalensis. In the northern part of the Sahel, different types of desert scrub, such as Panicum turgidum and Aristida sieberana, alternate with grasslands and savannah. During the long dry season, many trees lose their leaves, and the grasses die.
The Sahel was once home to many populations of grazing mammals, including the Oryx dammah, the Nanger dama (dama gazelle), Gazella dorcas (dorcas gazelle) and Eudorcas rufifrons (red-fronted gazelle), as well as the buffalo (Alcelaphus busephalus buselaphus), along with large predators such as the Lycaon pictus, the cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) and the lion. Larger species have seen their numbers greatly reduced by overhunting and fighting for food, and several species are now vulnerable (dorcas gazelle and rufifrons gazelle), threatened (dama gazelle, Lycaon pictus, cheetah, the lion), or extinct (the dammah oryx is possibly extinct in the wild and the buffalo is extinct). The seasonal wetlands of the Sahel provide shelter for migratory birds moving on the African continent and in the African-European bird flyways.
Its abundant fauna stands out, although dispersed by anthropic action, with the presence of large ungulates, bovids and felines.
History
Early Agriculture
The first examples of plant domestication for agricultural use in Africa occurred in the Sahel region around 5000 BC. C., when sorghum and African rice began to be cultivated [citation needed]. Around this time, and in the same region, the guinea fowl was domesticated.
Around 4000 B.C. C. the climate of the Sahara and the Sahel began to become drier at an increasingly rapid rate. This climate change caused a significant decrease in the level of lakes and rivers, causing a progressive desertification. This, in turn, decreased the amount of land capable of accommodating settlements and contributed to the migration of peasant populations to wetter areas of West Africa.
Sahelian kingdoms
The Sahelian kingdoms were a series of monarchies located in the Sahel, between the 9th century and the 18th century. Their wealth came from their control of the trans-Saharan trade routes through the desert, especially the Arab slave trade. Their power was based on the possession of pack animals, such as camels or horses, which were fast enough to keep a large empire under control and at the same time were useful in battle. All these kingdoms and empires functioned in a very decentralized way, with their cities having a significant level of autonomy.
The first Sahelian kingdoms arose from 750 AD around important trading cities along the Niger River region, such as Timbuktu, Gao and Djenné. The Sahelian states found their limit in the forested areas of the south, where the Ashanti and Yoruba defended themselves well, and the mounted Sahelian warriors were useless, unable to survive the heat and disease of the region.
Colonial Period
The western Sahel fell under French rule towards the end of the 19th century, thus becoming part of French West Africa. Chad was added in 1900 as part of French Equatorial Africa. The French territories were decolonized in 1960. The eastern Sahel, which would comprise the part known today as the Sudan, did not fall under the rule of the European powers, but was annexed by Mehmet Ali in 1820. It fell under British administration as part of the Sultanate of Egypt in 1914.
The Sudanese Sahel became part of independent Sudan in 1956, entering a long period of instability and war, the most recent example being the Darfur Conflict. The easternmost part of the Sahel fell under Italian control as part of Italian Eritrea in 1890. Eritrea was annexed by Haile Selassie of Ethiopia in 1962, achieving independence in 1993 after a long war of independence.
Recent droughts
In 1915, a major drought occurred in the Sahel, caused by annual rainfall well below the annual average, which led to a large-scale famine. During the 1960s there were significant increases in rainfall in the region, which made the northern parts of the region more accessible. There was a push, backed by governments, for people to move north. When the long period of drought began between 1968 and 1974, grazing soon became unsustainable, and the land was soon denuded. As during the 1914 drought, this led to a full-scale famine, but this time it was somewhat alleviated by the arrival of outside aid. This catastrophe led to the founding of the International Fund for Agricultural Development.
Between June and August 2010, famine struck the Sahel again. Crops in Niger failed to mature during the dry season, resulting in famine. In Chad, temperatures reached 47.6 °C on June 22 in Faya-Largeau, breaking a record set in 1961 in the same town. Niger reached its maximum temperature in 1998, also on June 22, reaching 47.1 °C in Bilma.
Desertification and sandstorms
Over-agriculture, overgrazing and overpopulation of marginal lands, as well as soil erosion, have caused a profound desertification of the region. In addition, major sandstorms occur with significant frequency. During November 2004, a series of sandstorms hit Chad, creating the Bodélé Depression. This is an area where sandstorms occur frequently, averaging 100 days a year.
On August 25, 2008, major sandstorms ravaged the Somali plains and northeastern drought-stricken Kenya. On March 23, 2010, a major sandstorm struck Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea and the interior areas of Sierra Leone. A later episode hit Algeria, the interior of Mauritania, Mali and the north of Côte d'Ivoire.
Instability and violence
Terrorist organizations such as Boko Haram and Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) operating in the Sahel have contributed to violence, extremism and instability in the region.
In March 2020, the United States sent a special envoy to the Sahel region to combat increasing violence by terrorist groups. Envoy Peter Pham began his new role on March 1, 2020. Peter Pham has been the US Special Envoy for the African Great Lakes region since November 2018.
Violent conflicts between herders and farmers in Nigeria, the March 2019 attacks on Fulani herders in Mali, Sudanese tribal conflicts and other countries in the Sahel region have been exacerbated by climate change, land degradation, land, and population growth. Droughts and food shortages have also been linked to the conflict in northern Mali.
On 9 July 2020, the United States expressed concern about the increasing number of reports of human rights abuses and violations by state security forces in the Sahel. The US response was it came after Human Rights Watch released documents on the same topic on July 1. Reports from March 2022 show activists expanding and spreading south to the Sahel.