The World Ahead | Africa in 2024
It’s going to get grimmer in the Sahel
Things are getting worse in the world’s most conflict-hit region
![A man walks through rubble by a destroyed car and house that was hit by an artillery shell in Sudan.](https://www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1424,quality=80,format=auto/content-assets/images/20231118_TWMAP502.jpg)
By Kinley Salmon
Draw an arc across Africa south of the Sahara, and it passes through not just a belt of junta-run countries but the most conflict-ridden region in the world. This arid stretch, known as the Sahel, takes in jihadist conflict in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger; rampant banditry in northern Nigeria; the fight against the terrorists of Boko Haram and its offshoots by four countries around Lake Chad; civil war in Sudan; smouldering ethnic conflict in northern Ethiopia; and, to the south, the terrorists of al-Shabab in Somalia.
This article appeared in the Middle East and Africa section of the print edition of The World Ahead 2024 under the headline “Of chaos and coups”