Sahel

Sahel (sähĕl`), 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.

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Sahel

 Arabic Sahil

Semiarid zone, western and north-central Africa. Extending from Senegal eastward to The Sudan, it forms a narrow transitional band between the arid Sahara to the north and the humid savannas to the south. Beginning in the late 20th century, it was subjected to increased desertification and soil erosion caused by natural climate changes as well as overgrazing and overfarming. The countries of the zone suffered a devastating drought and famine in the early 1970s, and by 1973 sections of the Sahara had advanced southward as much as 60 mi (100 km). Severe drought and famine again struck the region in 1983–85. Efforts by local governments to combat desertification in the Sahel have met with limited success.

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sahel [sə′hel]

(ecology)

A region having characteristics of a savanna or a steppe and bordering on a desert.

(meteorology)

A strong dust-bearing desert wind in Morocco.

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Sahel 

the narrow (320–480 km) band of semideserts and desert savannas in Africa that are transitional between the deserts of the Sahara and the characteristic topography of the Sudan. The Sahel stretches for more than 4 million sq km from Mauritania and Senegal in the west through Mali, Upper Volta, and Niger to Chad and the borders of the Sudan. The area of the Sahel varies from year to year, depending on the amount of annual precipitation (100–350 mm) in the north to 300–600 mm in the south). Rain falls in the summer for a period ranging from two or three weeks to three months, but 80 or 90 percent of the moisture evaporates. The Sahel is periodically subject to disastrous droughts, when virtually the entire area becomes uninhabitable desert; this was the case in 1941 and 1942 and from 1972 to 1975.

The northern Sahel has mostly sparse semidesert vegetation, such as turf grasses, shrubs, and low-growing trees, especially acacias. This region is inhabited by nomadic herders who raise cattle, sheep, and goats. In the southern Sahel, sparse thorn forests, groves of palms (doom and palmyra), and baobabs predominate. Nomads and communities of settled land cultivators live in the area, and millet and peanuts are grown.