NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania: As global attention turns to the war raging in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, conflicts elsewhere, particularly violence in Sudan and instability in the Sahel, risk being forgotten.
Africa’s Sahel region, stretching from Mali in the west to Sudan in the east, was thrust into the global spotlight in early 2023 by a wave of political unrest, humanitarian challenges and security threats.
Given its strategic importance to Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, the recent spate of coups, extremist insurgencies and the proliferation of migration routes have made it a particular source of concern for policy makers.
International actors, from former colonial rulers including France to multilateral bodies such as the African Union, are increasingly alarmed by the perceived indifference to the region and failure to help solve problems.
Sudan crisis
The region’s first major unrest in 2023 arose in Sudan, where violence erupted in mid-April between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Force, triggering a massive wave of displacement that has since rippled into neighboring countries.
The capital Khartoum, the troubled Darfur region and other parts of the country ended the year ravaged by fighting and mass displacement, causing economic collapse, a crumbling health system and a growing risk of famine.
The recruitment of foreign fighters from across the wider Sahel region, many of them children and destitute farmers driven to desperation, has led to fears that the conflict could spread across the region, multiplying the proliferation of small arms and destabilizing neighboring states.
Saudi Arabia and the US have brokered multiple rounds of ceasefire talks with Sudan’s warring parties, while the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, an eight-nation trade bloc in Africa, has also sought to reach a settlement.
As for a domestic resolution, initial hopes for a civilian government in Sudan after the military overthrew a civilian-led administration in late 2021 have been dashed.
Aid agencies have made repeated calls for the warring parties to stop committing violence against civilians, particularly women and girls, shedding light on the humanitarian dimensions of the unrest.
Experts have also warned that the conflict and the resulting collapse of government authority could be exploited by extremist groups such as Daesh and Al-Qaeda or pave the way for the creation of new radical organizations with similar aims.
Niger coup
Amid the focus on Sudan, the international community was caught off guard in July when a coup in Niger marked the latest in a series of military takeovers in the region — Mali and Burkina Faso had witnessed coups of their own in recent years.
This development highlighted the fragility of governance structures in the Sahel, raising questions about the effectiveness of international efforts to promote stability and democratic institutions.
Niger, a landlocked country of 25 million people, has been the beneficiary of Western programs aimed at preventing migrants from traveling further north. However, the junta turned its back on the West, aligning itself with the broad public sentiment that little of this money had trickled down to local communities.
The coup had wider implications, particularly for the flow of migrants passing through the region.
Before the coup, Niger had worked with Western governments to help manage these migration routes. As a result, European states turned to Tunisia and Libya to control irregular migration in the Mediterranean Sea.
Alongside these developments, support for anti-immigration politicians has grown across Europe. In turn, moderates have been forced to offer increased border protection and overhauled asylum policies to meet electoral challenges.
Storms and earthquakes
Beyond the conflicts and coups, nature also made its capacity for destruction felt in September, when Morocco was hit by a devastating earthquake and Libya suffered catastrophic floods, leaving thousands dead and many more missing.
These twin disasters prompted a global aid response, but the support given to suffering Moroccans differed greatly from that given in Libya, with the latter remaining closed to the world while militias preyed on the local population and the large number of migrants passing through Libya. Country.
Displacement
The result of these multiple, overlapping disasters was the mass displacement of the Sahel population, leaving it vulnerable to exploitation. International agencies have drawn particular attention to the ongoing recruitment of child soldiers across the Sahel.
The prevalence of child exploitation added a grim dimension to an already complex set of challenges and underscored the need for international cooperation to protect the most vulnerable in times of crisis.
At the same time, the UN expressed concern about the growing hunger crisis in Sudan. This humanitarian emergency has added urgency to the critical need for food aid and assistance to address the escalating challenges facing the population.
By November, warnings had resurfaced about the possibility of genocide in Sudan’s Darfur, echoing past tragedies in the region. Analysts said the ominous development underscored the need to address the root causes of the conflict, prompting fresh calls for diplomatic initiatives and peace efforts.
The year came to an end with the fall of the Sudanese town of Wad Madani to the RSF, despite recent ceasefire talks and earlier US warnings. The RSF’s latest success on the battlefield followed three days of heavy fighting, which led to a mass exodus of residents to the south and the suspension of operations by aid organizations.
The tragic outcome of these mass displacement episodes became all too clear on December 16 when 61 migrants, many of them from Sudan, South Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea, drowned in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Libya when the small boat contraband they were traveling in encountered difficulties.
Signs of hope
Perhaps the only positive news to come out of the region in the final days of 2023 was the US’s help in promoting reconciliation between Algeria and Morocco to address the conflict in Western Sahara.
A persistent source of contention between the two Arab neighbors, the contested nature of the territory also matters to external actors due to its role as a transit point for Africans migrating to Spain.
If there is one lesson to be learned from the past 12 months, analysts believe it is the need for comprehensive solutions that address both the root causes of the many overlapping conflicts in the Sahel and their wider impact on migration patterns.