Sahel

The Sahel region (; from Arabic ساحل sāḥil [ˈsaːħil], "coast, shore"), or Sahelian acacia savanna, is a biogeographical region in Africa. It is the transition zone between the more humid Sudanian savannas to its south and the drier Sahara to the north. The Sahel has a hot semi-arid climate and stretches across the southernmost latitudes of North Africa between the Atlantic Ocean and the Red Sea. Although geographically located in the tropics, the Sahel does not have a tropical climate. The Sahel has one of the world's fastest-growing populations due to its high human birthrate, with approximately 80 million people in 2018. The western Sahel in particular has experienced frequent food and water shortages due to droughts caused by its semi-arid climate, as well as high levels of government corruption. Since the 2010s, various coups, insurgencies, terrorist incidents, and foreign interventions have taken place across the Sahel and Françafrique, leading to the region being called the Coup Belt. As a result, the Sahel is viewed as both an ecoregion and a geopolitical space shaped by internal instability and external strategic competition.