Human Saga

The Sahel Drought Triggers Mass Famine Across West Africa

1972–1974·Environment & climate·Sub-Saharan Africa (Niger)·
1972–1974Date
Environment & climateCategory
7Empires active
Date
1972–1974
Category
Environment & climate
Region
Sub-Saharan Africa (Niger)
Era
Contemporary
Significance

A catastrophic drought gripped Africa's Sahel in the early 1970s, culminating in famine that killed an estimated hundreds of thousands of people and devastated six countries—Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Upper Volta, Niger and Chad.

After rains failed repeatedly and 1972 brought almost none at all, crops withered across the semi-arid belt south of the Sahara, and between half and two-thirds of the region's cattle perished, destroying the livelihoods of nomadic herders and subsistence farmers alike. The advancing desert swallowed grazing land, driving desperate refugees toward towns and relief camps as the sub-Saharan famine unfolded largely out of sight of the wider world until images of starvation finally drew international attention. The disaster exposed the vulnerability of drought-prone regions to climate variability and the limits of colonial-era agricultural policies, and it spurred lasting scientific and humanitarian focus on desertification, food security and early-warning systems. The Sahel crisis foreshadowed decades of recurring droughts and became a landmark in the modern understanding of environment, poverty and climate risk.

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Empires active in 1972–1974

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A New Green History of the World

Clive Ponting

The classic accessible account of how environment and climate have shaped human history.

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