Discussions on security and development are increasingly focusing on the connection between conflict and climate change. The Sahel, a region characterized by difficult environmental circumstances, is one area of particular concern. More than 100 million people live in the six francophone nations of the western Sahel: Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and Senegal. The Sahel has been the main target of European and American counterterrorism and stability initiatives since the 2000s. However, violent conflicts including Islamic insurgencies and intercommunal violence have progressively escalated over the past 10 years, displacing over 2.5 million people in the region, taking tens of thousands of lives, and leaving many more in need of humanitarian aid, despite several military operations and billions of dollars in security support. Policymakers in the US and Europe are increasingly trying to understand the local and structural causes of war and fragility, including environmental elements, as instability increases and starts to spread to coastal West African nations.
https://www.cfr.org/report/climate-change-and-conflict-sahel