It’s going to get grimmer in the Sahel

By Kinley Salmon

Draw an arc across Africa south of the Sahara, and it passes through not just a belt of junta-run countries but the most conflict-ridden region in the world. This arid stretch, known as the Sahel, takes in jihadist conflict in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger; rampant banditry in northern Nigeria; the fight against the terrorists of Boko Haram and its offshoots by four countries around Lake Chad; civil war in Sudan; smouldering ethnic conflict in northern Ethiopia; and, to the south, the terrorists of al-Shabab in Somalia.

The devastation is shocking. In Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, known as the central Sahel, more than 10,000 people were killed in armed conflict in 2022. By September 2023 that total had already been surpassed. In northern Nigeria, more than 7,000 people were killed in 2022. In five months of conflict in Sudan more than 9,000 people were slaughtered. A conservative tally of the number of people forced from their homes in the region, excluding Somalia, comes to 15m..