It’s going to get grimmer in the Sahel

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.