Sahara - The African Mirror

Sep

2021

How countries alongside the Sahara can restore productive land faster

NIGERIA'S President Muhammadu Buhari is about to take over the presidency of the Pan-African Agency of the Great Green Wall – the continent’s effort to restore degraded cropland, grazing areas and woodlands bordering the Sahara Desert. He takes over from Mohamed Ould Ghazouani, president of Mauritania. LARS LAESTADIUS, Adjunct Research Scientist, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences CHRIS REIJ, Sustainable land management specialist, World Resources Institute DENNIS GARRITY, Board Chair, Global EverGreening Alliance & Distinguished Senior Fellow, World Agroforestry (ICRAF), World Agroforestry (ICRAF) Buhari has the support of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification and an international accelerator platform with…

Feb

2021

By The African Mirror

Sahara dust chokes Senegal’s capital

NEWS

A cloud of dust brought by dry winds from the Sahara has settled over much of West and Central Africa, reducing visibility, choking residents, and disrupting fishing in the Senegal's capital Dakar. Each year, dry, dusty winds sweep in from the Sahara and cover much of West Africa and the Gulf of Guinea. The yearly phenomenon, known as the Harmattan season, runs from November through March. "Those who have toddlers with poor health like mine, who is not yet one year old, cannot work properly," said Khoudia Ndiaye, who sells fish at a market in Dakar. "Yesterday I couldn't work…

Sep

2020

By The African Mirror

Adrar’s problems exposed as Sahara Desert heats up

ENVIRONMENT

MAHER MEZAHI and ZAHRA RAHMOUNI THE Sahara desert is synonymous with Algeria. It covers more than 80% of its national territory and is responsible for producing most of its wealth through agriculture, natural gas and crude oil. Those populations living in the deepest corners of the desert and most in need of help paradoxically remain the most marginalised. Nowhere is that truer than in the province of Adrar, where it is not uncommon for temperatures to exceed 50°C during the infernal summer months. Local meteorologists have even drawn what they call the “triangle of fire” between the provincial cities of…

Sep

2020

By The African Mirror

Dozens of abandoned migrants rescued in Sahara

NEWS

MORE than 80 African migrants have been rescued from the Sahara desert after they were robbed and left to die by people they had paid to smuggle them to Libya, according to the U.N. migration agency, citing survivors. Drivers abandoned four trucks carrying the migrants from Nigeria, Togo, Mali and Ghana with no food or water about 230 km (143 miles) north of the Sahara crossroad town of Niger's Dirkou after spotting military vehicles. Three days later, an IOM rescue team found the group, which included children, by chance on Sept. 3. Many were dehydrated, injured and in need of…

Aug

2020

By The African Mirror

Is Sahara the Last Colony in Africa?

MULTIMEDIA

Embassy of Morocco in South Africa The Embassy of the Kingdom of Morocco in South Africa is pleased to share the first piece of the 8 videos part of its communication campaign on the regional dispute over the Sahara. As we celebrate today the commemoration of the 41st anniversary of the reintegration of the province of Oued Eddahab, Ambassador Youssef Amrani reviews facts and history to deconstruct the fallacious and erroneous assumption that the Sahara is the last colony in Africa. The Ambassador explains why this allegation is without substance, derives from ignorance and lacks legal, historical and political foundations.…