Sahel

Sahel (sähel') [key], name applied to the semiarid region of Africa between the Sahara to the north and the savannas to the south, extending from Senegal and Mauritania on the west, through Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, N Nigeria, Chad, and Sudan, to Ethiopia and Eritrea on the east. Beginning in the late 1960s the Sahel was afflicted by a prolonged and devastating drought that further reduced the region's normally meager water supplies, shattered its agricultural economy, contributed to the starvation of an estimated 100,000 people, and forced the mass migration southward of many people. Although rainfall and international relief efforts helped, drought and famine affected the Sahel again in the mid-1980s and early 1990s.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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