The shifting sands of the Sahel

by Luca Catalano Gonzaga
Part of Child survival in a changing climate
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Sahel is the region separating the Sahara Desert from the most fertile grounds of the ‘Black Africa’, a long semi-desert strip stretching from the Atlantic to the Red Sea. Sahel has the second highest population growth rate in the world. According to the United Nations, it is estimated that its population will exceed 93 million inhabitants in 2050. Climate change continues to significantly affect this area, causing a decrease in agriculture, a change in the flowing of rivers and watercourses and their continuous silting up, the intensification of desertification, and the massive movement of populations as climate refugees. Currently, this region is one of the most affected by desertification, that shall not be seen only as an ecological problem but also as a social one, taking into account it generates internal riots among inhabitants, increases migration and it is home to approximately 50 million people whose survival is at risk. (text by Luca Catalano Gonzaga).

  • Sahel, Burkina Faso 2010. The Mare d’Oursi is a very shallow lake in the Oudalan region in the north of Burkina Faso, on which many communities rely for water supply. The Sahel region is one of the most affected by the problem of desertification, that shall not be seen only as an ecological problem but also as a social one, considering that it generates internal riots among inhabitants, increases migration and it is home to approximately fifty million people whose survival is at risk.
  • Sahel, Burkina Faso 2010. A family in a moment of relax along the Mare d’Oursi. Over 70% of the population live with less than $2 per day in Burkina Faso and its economy is heavily dependent on natural resources. In the areas of the Mare d’Oursi approximately 50,000 people rely on natural water resources.
  • Sahel, Burkina Faso 2010. Girl at the village of Markoye. In the Sahel, over 5 million children under the age of5 suffer from malnutrition.
  • Sahel, Burkina Faso 2010. Women washing clothes along the river in the village of Markoye.
  • Sahel, Burkina Faso 2010. A family has fun while washing a rug in the Mare d’Oursi. 12 million people could be affected by the nutrition crisis across countries in the Sahel swathe and the lives of 1.1 million children could be at risk because of severe acute malnutrition.
  • Sahel, Burkina Faso 2010. New data published in 2020, by UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have remarked on the worsening of nutritional situation for children in Burkina Faso, with more than 535.000 children under the age of 5 suffering from acute malnutrition.
  • Sahel, Burkina Faso 2010. Women along the way to the village of Markoye.
  • Sahel, Burkina Faso 2010. According to the United Nations forecast, as many as 60 out of the 135 million climate refugees caused by desertification in the Sahel will be forced to move from sub-Saharan Africa to North Africa and Europe, by 2035.
  • Sahel, Burkina Faso 2010. Simà, 16 years old collects water near the village of Oursi.
  • Sahel, Burkina Faso 2010. Children fishing along the river nearby the village of Markoye. Children under-nutrition situation in the Sahel belt deteriorated significantly in the past decades. Poor rainfall led to widespread crops decline and loss of livestock, leading to a rise in food prices.
  • Sahel, Burkina Faso 2010. The village of Markoye.
  • Sahel, Burkina Faso 2010. The Sahel is especially prone to desertification as it is a fragile ecosystem easily affected by climatic changes and human activities.
  • Sahel, Burkina Faso 2010. A shepherd grazing his goats close to a water puddle, not yet dried out, near the Gorom Gorom village. Nomadic shepherds have been knowing the phenomenon of drought since eve,r and have been always able to manage its consequences. Their role is very important for the local economy: shepherds, in fact, contribute for about 13% to their country’s GDP.
  • Sahel, Burkina Faso 2010. Farmers in Burkina Faso, and especially those living in the Sahelian areas, are facing severe issues because of food insecurity and growing impoverishment.
  • Sahel, Burkina Faso 2011. A dead tree trunk near the village of Markoye. Due to the rise in temperatures, drought is intensifying during the short rainy season and that may shorten further in the following years.
  • Sahel, Burkina Faso 2010. Portrait of a girl in the village of Oursi. Children have no responsibilities on climate change, yet they will bear the greatest burden of its impact. Approximately 160 million children, in the world, live in areas with severe drought and 500 million kids (almost a quarter of the whole world’s child population) live in regions affected by severe floods. It is estimated that by 2040, approximately 600 million children will be living in areas with water supply stress conditions.
  • Sahel, Burkina Faso 2010. In recent years, the Country has experienced widespread poverty, poor schooling, isolation of the territory as well as growing political instability that have led to a shortage of investment for development.
  • Sahel, Burkina Faso 2010. According to the United Nations, across the Sahel temperatures increase is expected to be 1.5 times higher than the global average. About 50 million people are pastoralists whose livelihoods depend on rearing livestock. But droughts and floods triggered by climate change are shrinking their lands, leaving over 29 million people with food insecurity.
  • Sahel, Burkina Faso 2010. The area around the village of Bani, increasingly affected by desertification.
  • Sahel, Burkina Faso 2010. View of the village of Bani. Climate change affect the Sahelian region of Africa through severe decline in rainfall, water availability and agricultural yield.
  • Sahel, Burkina Faso 2010. A child sleeps in a drained river bed on the road from Gandefabou village to Djibo. The population growth of this area is constant and the number of children is very high. Climate change keeps affecting the Sahel region, causing a decrease in agriculture, a change in the flowing of rivers and watercourses and their continuous silting up, the intensification of desertification, and the massive movement of populations as climate refugees.
  • Sahel, Burkina Faso 2010. Malaria is a major public health issue in Burkina Faso. Although dramatic progress in its control has been made in recent years with the scale-up of malaria prevention and early treatment interventions, many inhabitants are still at risk of infection. In Burkina Faso, according to 2016 statistical data of the Système National d’Information Sanitaire (National Health Information System), malaria is the main reason for consultation (43.4%), hospitalization (44.6%) and death (21.8%). Pregnant women and children under the age of 5 are the most vulnerable targets.
  • Sahel, Burkina Faso 2010. A child walking in the bed of ta drained river along the road to the village of Gandefabou. The population of this area is constantly growing and the number of children is very high. They are the main victims of climate change and desertification in the Sahel Region.
  • Sahel, Burkina Faso 2010. A group of women treading the yams. Yam flour is a widely used food in Burkina Faso. Sahel is a long semi-desert strip stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea. Climate changes, affecting this area, cause an intensification of desertification and an increase of poverty.
  • Sahel, Burkina Faso 2010. The northern regions of Burkina Faso, like the entire Sahel belt, have been suffering for decades from the consequences of desertification, soil degradation and increasingly frequent periods of drought.
  • Sahel, Burkina Faso 2011. A shepherd with his flock near the village of Markoye, in the Oudalan region. About 50 million people in the Sahel are pastoralists whose livelihoods depend on rearing livestock.
  • Sahel, Burkina Faso 2010. In Burkina Faso, over 40% of the population lives below the poverty line.
  • Sahel, Burkina Faso 2010. In the Sahel, over 5 million children under the age of 5 suffer from malnutrition.
  • Sahel, Burkina Faso 2010. Djibo village, portrait of girl.
  • Sahel, Burkina Faso 2010. In Burkina Faso, 80% of the population lives on agriculture and livestock. In one of the poorest countries in the world, the effects of climate change cause even more hunger and threaten its inhabitants’ subsistence.
  • Sahel, Burkina Faso 2010. Burkina Faso, a landlocked Country in West Africa, has over one million domestic displaced persons, 60% of whom are children and 3.3 million people suffer from very serious food insecurity.
  • Sahel, Burkina Faso 2010. Construction of a dam near the Mare d’Oursi. The Sahel, where environmental degradation has been very rapid, registered the disappearance of large arable expanse.
  • Sahel, Burkina Faso 2010. Women taking water from a well, along the road to the village of Bani. Climate change has led to critical delays in the rainy season in the Sahel thus compromising forage and grazing areas.
  • Sahel, Burkina Faso 2010. Water containers along the way to the village of Bani. Agriculture, a sector that employs one in three citizens, is threatened by climate change as the rise of the temperature is hitting the territories of Sahel with severe violence.
  • Sahel, Burkina Faso 2010. Resting time in the village of Oursi. Drought puts a strain on the fate of a population who depends on agriculture and livestock.
  • Sahel, Burkina Faso 2010. The Sahel is one of the poorest areas in the world, where food insecurity has increased enormously over the past 10 years.
  • Sahel, Burkina Faso 2010. Girl in a gold mine in the north of the Country. Women and children are employed for crushing stones and this activity produces a dust that is a serious threat to their health.
  • Sahel, Burkina Faso 2010. Sana, 13 years old, in her hut at the village of Oursi. Climate change and environmental degradation are contributing to people displacement and migration; Sub-Saharan Africa registers 86 million climate migrants.
  • Sahel, Burkina Faso 2010. Alhousseini, 6 years old, like many other children in Bani, works for the mine checking the stones extracted to find grains of gold. With the increase of desertification in Burkina Faso, entire families are employed in the gold mines, working in inhumane conditions with no security measures, in an attempt to escape from poverty.
  • Sahel, Burkina Faso 2010. A mother and her child at the entrance to the Bani mosque. Temperatures in the Sahel are expected to rise 1.5 times faster than the global average, pushing the thermometer up to 3-5 degrees Celsius above the standard (already 35 degrees) by 2050.

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