How climate change is leading to a rise in violence in the Sahel
The UN estimates 80 percent of the Sahels rain-fed farmland is affected by degradation due to erratic rainfall. More than 1.3 million people have been plunged into extreme poverty in the Sahel, as the Belt of Africa experiences its deepest recession since independence due to COVID-19. Long before the pandemic, the Western Sahel was being reshaped by climate change. Farmers and herders have been clashing over fertile land and, lacking opportunities, many young people have been recruited to violent groups. Ornella Moderan, the head of the Sahel programme at the Institute for Security Studies, explains why. And Fairtrade Foundation CEO Michael Gidney talks to Al Jazeera about the effect climate change is having on the 1.8 million farmers his non-profit organisation works with.