The Sahel — Where COVID-19 and Climate Change Combined to Create a Crisis

The Sahel is the region in Africa lying between the Sahara Desert to the north and the Sudanian savanna to the south. The region encompasses northern Senegal, southern Mauritania, the central areas of Mali and Chad, Niger, northern Burkina Faso, the extreme southern areas of Algeria, the extreme northern areas of Nigeria, Cameroon, Central African Republic, South Sudan, Eritrea, and Ethiopia, and much of Sudan.

Its semi-arid climate and biogeographic characteristics have meant migration has long been a feature for those living in the region. In response to poor harvests and droughts, Sahelians have migrated regularly between regions to ensure their livelihoods.

Climate change has exacerbated the pressures on the people of the region. Irregular weather patterns and extreme conditions, such as flooding and more severe drought, have presented an increased need for people to migrate to maintain their livelihoods.

But 2020 posed an even more pressing problem: border controls and lockdowns limited movement in the area, as it did around the globe, meaning the seasonal environmental migrants of the Sahel faced restrictions on their ability to move as usual.

According to a study by Reach:

“… with the spread of the virus, long-held seasonal migration patterns were limited, putting on hold an important source of supplementary revenue for millions of Sahelians across the region.”

The joint impacts of climate change and COVID-19 had placed some of the world’s most vulnerable populations into deeper crisis. Climate change is making migration increasingly necessary. Coronavirus-related restrictions made migration more difficult, taking longer and involving less frequented routes.

The Sahel offers a stark reminder that climate change poses an existential threat to vulnerable populations, and as it worsens, those impacts will gradually become felt by increasing numbers of people.

It also offers a lesson in how climate change makes us less resilient to shocks such as the coronavirus pandemic. Tackling climate change, then, needs to be treated with considerable urgency. As it worsens, we will only become more vulnerable to the impact of one-off economic and social shocks.

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