Armed attacks attributed to Sahel-based jihadist groups have intensified in northern Benin in recent weeks, highlighting the continued spread of militant activity along the country’s borders with Burkina Faso and Niger. On March 4, fighters linked to the Group for the...
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Desert Locusts Stir Fresh Worries in North-West Africa
Agricultural authorities in several parts of North and West Africa are maintaining surveillance for desert locust activity following recent reports of small swarms detected near Algeria’s southwestern border. The monitoring reflects the importance of the western...
Mali Army, Russian Allies Accused of Executing Civilians Near Mauritania Border
Malian troops and their Russian allies are accused of executing refugees and civilians near the Mauritanian border, according to RFI. The French media outlet said seven people who had just crossed from Mauritania into Mali were killed on Friday, March 6, in the Ahl El...
Niger: Armed Attacks Target Military Bases in Tahoua
In the early hours of March 9, 2026, armed militants launched coordinated assaults on military facilities in Tahoua, a city in northwestern Niger located about 500 kilometers east of Niamey. The attacks targeted both the local airport and nearby military...
Trump Sends Controversial Envoy to South Africa at a Diplomatic Low Point
The arrival of Leo Brent Bozell III as the new U.S. ambassador to South Africa comes at a moment of visible diplomatic tension between Washington and Pretoria. Appointed in March 2025 by President Donald Trump and arriving in Pretoria on February 17, 2026, Bozell...
Algeria and Niger Relaunch Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline After Diplomatic Freeze
Algeria and Niger have formally reset strained bilateral relations and announced the operational relaunch of the long-delayed Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline project, signaling a significant geopolitical and energy shift across North and West Africa. During an official...
Mauritania Confronts Concentrated Desert Locust Outbreak With Regional Spillover Risk
Mauritania is facing a concentrated desert locust outbreak in several western and northern regions, prompting...
Sahel: Fever Outbreak Overwhelms Mauritanian Hospitals
Hospitals in Mauritania are under growing strain as an outbreak of an unidentified fever spreads through the country’s...
Mauritania: Water Scarcity Sparks Protests in Chami
Residents of Chami, a mining hub in western Mauritania, have taken to the streets to protest severe and prolonged...
Mauritania Battles Dual Outbreaks Amid Sahel’s Shifting Climate
Mauritania is contending with concurrent outbreaks of diphtheria and Rift Valley fever that have left at least 36...
Sahel Displacement Hits 4 Million: UN Warns of Growing Crisis
By MondAfrique: On October 10, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) sounded the alarm: around 4...
Niger: Heavy Rains Force Back-to-School Delay
For the second year in a row, Niger’s public education system is adjusting its calendar in response to extended...
Senegal Battles Dual Epidemics: Monkeypox and Rift Valley Fever
Senegalese health authorities have announced two concurrent epidemics: monkeypox (Mpox) and Rift Valley fever. So far,...
Protests Erupt as Water Shortage Grips Mauritania
Opposition lawmakers in Mauritania staged a sit-in at the Ministry of Water to protest a two-week-long water shortage...
Sahel/Sahara: Unprecedented Summer Flooding Devastates Numerous Regions
Every summer, the Sahara and Sahel regions experience floodings that cause deaths and damage. This year, however, the...
Sahel: The demise of the ancient city of Timbuktu
When jihadists in Mali announced they would blockade the ancient city of Timbuktu, residents thought it was just...
Morocco: Earthquake kills hundreds of people in Marrakesh
A powerful earthquake that shook Morocco late Friday killed more than 600 people, interior ministry figures showed,...
Sahel: As political tensions persist, Niger population faces hardship
Floods this week have caused the death of 31 people in politically battered Niger, including eight following the...
Niger: Sahara salt diggers struggle to maintain centuries-old trade
By Camille Laffont: At the edge of an oasis almost engulfed by the dunes, where the rare caravan still passes, is a...
Sahel: Over 16 million people need aid in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger
More than 16 million people affected by conflict and climate change in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger need humanitarian...
Sahel: Herders and farmers in south Chad continue to clash, more deaths reported
Clashes between herders and farmers have killed at least 10 people in southern Chad, a region regularly troubled by...
Sahel’s children are facing extreme dangers, desperately need humanitarian help
By Robin Millard: Ten million children in west Africa's central Sahel region are now in "extreme jeopardy" and...
Environment: Sahel region crippled by torrential rains and deadly floods
Flooding caused by torrential rain in Niger has left 195 people dead and affected more than 322,000, an official toll...
Sahel: Record death toll from floods in Niger
Flooding caused by heavy rains in the West African state of Niger has claimed nearly 200 lives and affected more than...
Environment: Severe floods wreck havoc on West African agriculture
By Aminu Abubakar Nigeria rice farmer Adamu Garba squelched barefoot through his paddy fields, surveying damage from...
The Sahel is in permanent state of climate shock, the world’s most vulnerable to extreme droughts, floods and heatwaves
The World Bank on Monday urged five West African countries to diversify their economies to adapt to climate change,...
Sahel: More than 150 dead in Niger rainy season floods
Severe floods in Niger after months of heavy downpours have killed 159 people, authorities said Monday, marking one of...
Sahel: Floods wrecking havoc on the country of Niger
Powerful rains that have swept the arid state of Niger since June have left 75 dead and affected 108,000 people, the...
Niger tries artificial rainmaking to ease drought
Niger has deployed rainmaking planes in a bid to alleviate a drought that has sparked fears of a food crisis in the...
Sahel: Heavy rains destroy farmland, kill dozens of people in Chad
Torrential rains have caused the death of 22 people in Chad since June, with more than 110,000 affected, a UN report...
Sahel: Dozens dead in Niger’s floods and landslides
Flooding and landslides during Niger's rainy season have killed 32 people and affected more than 66,000 since June,...
Sahel: Despair in Chad as food crisis intensifies
Chad on Thursday declared a "food emergency" in the impoverished landlocked country, urging the international...
Sahel: Millions of people face food shortages
The United Nations warned Friday that up to 18 million people in the Sahel face severe food insecurity, with rations...
From spikes in food prices to canceled flights, Russia’s war on Ukraine is hitting Africa hard
By Patrick Markey and Joel Olatunde Agoi From airlines in Nigeria to shoppers in Malawi, Africans are feeling the...
Sahel: How to destroy a nation: ordinary Malians speak of their horrific life
By Amaury Hauchard Some are men of arms, who have taken up a gun out of need or for a cause. Others are just ordinary...
Mali: The demise of the historic Timbuktu and the man who helped destroy it
The fabled shrine city of Timbuktu was reduced to a "shadow of its former self" by Islamist jihadists, and residents...
Sahel: Disasters hit Niger hard
By Boureima Hama Few countries in the world struggle with as many burdens as Niger. The arid Sahel state is the...
Sahel: Mali’s environmental crisis
Extreme weather events in central Mali are complicating even further the lives of residents of the conflict-ridden...
A destabilized region: Awful week in the Sahel
Introduction by Arezki Daoud: For years, several analysts made dire predictions about where the Sahel was headed....
Niger: Torrentials rains and raging floods kills dozens in Maradi and Agadez
Heavy rains that have lashed Niger since June have claimed 64 lives, authorities said on Saturday, as floods and...
Niger: Several regions experiencing severe flooding, dozens killed
Heavy rains lashing arid Niger since June have killed 35 people and made more than 26,500 homeless, the civil...
NGO highlights harmful exports of fish from west Africa / Sahel
Rising exports of fish meal and fish oil from West Africa to Europe and Asia are depriving millions of Africans of...
Sahel: Complaint against Glencore over Chad spill clears UK hurdle
A complaint by rights groups over a toxic spill at an oil site in Chad linked to the British subsidiary of mining...
The Sahara’s 2 billion trees
At first glance the apparently barren expanses of the Sahel and Sahara deserts feature little greenery, but detailed...
Niger: Death toll in Niamey’s floods reaches 45
Niamey, Aug 27, 2020 - Several areas of the Niger capital Niamey remained under water on Thursday as the death toll in...
Niger: Floods kill dozens, 80,000 people affected
Abidjan, Aug 13, 2020 - Thirty-three people in Niger have died and more than 80,000 have been affected by floods...
Niger confronted with multiple natural disasters
Heavy rains that have struck Niger since June have claimed 19 lives and inflicted economic harm on tens of thousands...
Environment: The sad ending of a giraffe, killed by Niger’s heavy rains
Niamey, Aug 6, 2020 - An aged giraffe drowned after heavy rains in southwestern Niger while more than 30 others...
Sahel: Restoring the world heritage site of Bandiagara in Mali
The UN's culture organisation will restore the world heritage site of Bandiagara, in central Mali, which has been hit...