The African Sahel

The the Sahel (of the Arab ساحل the Sahel meaning coast or border ) indicates an arid region located between the desert of the the Sahara at North and the tropical areas where the rains are substantial in the South. It extends from the Atlantique to the Red Sea.

The countries of the Sahel are, of west in east:

the Senegal,
the Mauritania,
the Mali,
the Burkina Faso,
the Niger,
the Nigeria of North,
the Chad,
the Sudan,

One adds sometimes in an abusive way:

the Ethiopia,
the Érythrée,
Djibouti,
the Somalia.

Climate

The Sahel is mainly covered by the Steppe and the Savane. It receives 150 to 500 mm of precipitations per annum, mainly during the Mousson. He knows annual variations and decennial. One observes a narrow correlation between the rains of the Sahel and the Cyclone S of the Atlantique.

The Sahel is composed of several parts (in the order of north towards the south).

the Deserted : the average height of the rains does not exceed 150 mm per annum, any rain culture (depending only on rainwater) there is impossible.
“the Sahel of the nomads”: the grounds do not receive more than 400 mm of precipitations per annum, any agriculture based on rains is terribly precarious there; it is the field of the itinerant stockbreeders of Bœuf S and Dromadaire S.
“the Sahel of the sedentaries”: the average of precipitations is approximately 650 mm per annum; cultures of millet and Groundnut.
the zone sahélo-soudanienne: diversifications of the cultures, those become less sensitive to the climatic risks.
the zone Sudan ienne: precipitations are surroundings 950 mm per annum, the estival regular rains make it possible to cultivate the Sorgho, the Maïs and the Coton.

Stressing of the dryness and the turning into a desert

The Sahel is an area in prey with the Sécheresse and a Désertification which knows an inexorable progression. Since 1900, the Sahara progressed towards the south of 250 km on a 6.000 km broad face. The steppe of the Sahel, knows a relatively brutal drying which has as a consequence a endemic Famine. The herds do not find any more pastures and the cultures suffer from a lack of irrigation. In the Sahel, the attempts to stop the advance of the desert remain vain. Grounds are lost each year, out of the decimated herds, the famine still kills…

The Sahel itself corresponds to the “Sahel of the nomads” and the “Sahel of the sedentaries”.

External bonds

Turning into a desert of the Sahel

http://www.atlas-ouestafrique.org/spip.php?rubrique31

References

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