Tassara is a village and rural commune in Niger .
77-551: Tassara rural commune lies at the junction of the Sahel and the Sahara , receiving just enough yearly rainfall to make seasonal nomadic pasturage possible. The neighboring communes are Ingall to the northeast, Abalak to the southeast, Tchintabaraden to the southwest and Tillia to the northwest. The commune is subdivided into 19 administrative villages, four hamlets, 25 encampments (nomadic villages) and 27 wells. The administrative center of
154-599: A hot semi-arid climate and stretches across the southernmost latitudes of North Africa between the Atlantic Ocean and the Red Sea . Although geographically located in the tropics, the Sahel does not have a tropical climate . Especially in the western Sahel, there are frequent shortages of food and water due to its very high government corruption and the semi-arid climate . This is exacerbated by very high birthrates across
231-462: A climatic and ecological transition zone with hot semi-desert and steppe conditions , the Sahel region borders the more humid Sudanian savannas to its south and the dry Sahara desert to the north. This ecoregion is also called the Sahelian Acacia savanna in honour of its most prominent and very drought tolerant genus of tree. The topography of the Sahel is mainly flat; most of
308-561: A great deal of autonomy. The larger Sahelian kingdoms emerged from 750 AD and erected several large cities in the Niger valley region, including Timbuktu , Gao and Djenné . Due to the wooded areas to their south, the Sahelian states were hindered from expanding into the north Akan state of the Bonoman and Yoruba peoples , as mounted warriors were all but useless in the forests. In addition,
385-504: A group of local young men in Tassara. Sahel The Sahel region ( / s ə ˈ h ɛ l / ; from Arabic ساحل ( sāḥil [ˈsaːħil] ) 'coast, shore'), or Sahelian acacia savanna , is a biogeographical region in Africa . It is the transition zone between the more humid Sudanian savannas to its south and the drier Sahara to the north. The Sahel has
462-634: A person may rely on personal contacts to change a statutory process. As shown in the Corruption Perception Index 2023, there is also a positive relationship between corruption and impunity. Countries with higher levels of corruption are less likely to sanction public officials for failing to adhere to existing rules and fulfilled their responsibilities. A positive relationship was also shown between corruption and access to justice. Thesis The Relationship Between Corruption And Income Inequality: A Crossnational Study, published in 2013, investigates
539-505: A problem that affects the majority of people globally. Among the states with the most significant decline in the CPI are authoritarian states such as Venezuela, as well as established democracies that have been rated high for a long time, such as Sweden (decrease of 7, the current score 82) or Great Britain (decrease 3, current score 71). Other countries experiencing sharp declines include Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Gabon, Guatemala, and Turkey. In contrast,
616-448: A relative humidity under 35%. The Sahel is characterized by constant, intense heat, with an unvarying temperature. The Sahel rarely experiences cold temperatures. During the hottest period, the average high temperatures are generally between 36 and 42 °C (97 and 108 °F) (and even more in the hottest regions), often for more than three months, while the average low temperatures are around 25 to 31 °C (77 to 88 °F). During
693-467: A scale of 0-100. Here, 0 represents the most corruption and 100 signifies the least. Indices originally measuring corruption inversely (higher values for higher corruption) are multiplied by -1 to align with the 0-100 scale. In the next step, the mean and standard deviation for each data source based on data from the baseline year are calculated (the "impute" command of the STATA statistical software package
770-566: A series of monarchies centered in the Sahel between the 9th and 18th centuries. The wealth of the states, like the legendary Mali Empire at the time of Mansa Musa , came from controlling the trans-Saharan trade routes across the desert, especially with the Maghreb . Their power came from having large pack animals like camels and horses that were fast enough to keep a large empire under central control and were also useful in battle. All of these empires were quite decentralized with member cities having
847-552: A system of transhumance . The difference between the dry North with higher levels of soil nutrients and the wetter South with more vegetation, is utilized by having the herds graze on high-quality feed in the North during the wet season, and trek several hundred kilometers to the South to graze on more abundant, but less nutritious feed during the dry period. In Western Sahel, polygamy and child marriage are common. Female genital mutilation
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#1732883391126924-762: A warmer Atlantic Ocean. Warming of the Mediterranean Sea may also be a factor. Protected areas in the Sahel include Ferlo Nord Wildlife Reserve in Senegal, Sylvo-Pastoral and Partial Faunal Reserve of the Sahel in Burkina Faso, Ansonga-Ménake Faunal Reserve in Mali, Tadres Reserve in Niger, and Waza National Park in Cameroon. Traditionally, most of the people in the Sahel have been semi- nomads , farming and raising livestock in
1001-608: Is a common area for dust storms, occurring on average on 100 days every year. On 23 March 2010, a major sandstorm hit Mauritania, Senegal, The Gambia , Guinea-Bissau , Guinea , and inland Sierra Leone . Another struck in southern Algeria , inland Mauritania, Mali and northern Ivory Coast at the same time. Following the drought period of the 1970s and 1980, however, the Sahel began to experience increased rainfall. This may be due to global warming , which can cause changes that may result in changes in large-scale weather patterns, such as increased stronger monsoons, in turn caused by
1078-513: Is also practiced across the Sahel. The term "Sahel" is borrowed from the Arabic name for the region, الساحل al-sāḥil . Sāḥil literally means "coast, shore", which has been explained as a figurative reference to the southern edge of the vast Sahara. However, such use is unattested in Classical Arabic , and it has been suggested that the word may originally have been derived from
1155-411: Is calculated as a simple average of all its rescaled scores that are available for the given country, while at least three data sources must be available in order to calculate the index. The imputed data is used only for standardization and is not used as a score to calculate the index. The CPI score is accompanied by a standard error and confidence interval . This reflects the variation present within
1232-715: Is more space for discrimination against specific groups. It seems that the country's justice system is an important protector of the country against corruption, and conversely, a high level of corruption can undermine the effectiveness of the justice system.Furthermore, as noted by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), justice systems around the world are overburdened with large caseloads, chronically underfunded and in need of more financial and human resources to properly fulfill their mandates. This, in combination with increasing outside interference, pressures and efforts to undermine judicial independence, results in
1309-414: Is negatively associated with economic growth (Real per capita GDP decreased by around 17% in the long-run when the reversed CPI increased by one standard deviation). As reported by Transparency International , there is a correlation between the absence of discrimination and a better CPI score. That indicates that in countries with high corruption, equal treatment before the law is not guaranteed and there
1386-413: Is only a matter of time before countries like Niger lose their entire landmass to desert due to unchecked unsustainable human practices. Over-farming , over-grazing, over-population of marginal lands, and natural soil erosion , have caused serious desertification of the region. This has affected shelter construction, making it necessary to change the used materials. The Woodless Construction project
1463-574: Is probably extinct in the wild , and both Pelorovis and the Bubal hartebeest are now extinct). The seasonal wetlands of the Sahel are important for migratory birds moving within Africa and on the African-Eurasian flyways . The Sahel has a tropical semi-arid climate ( Köppen climate classification BSh ). The climate is typically hot, sunny, dry and somewhat windy all year long. The Sahel's climate
1540-460: Is published annually by the non-governmental organisation Transparency International since 1995. The 2023 CPI, published in January 2024, currently ranks 180 countries "on a scale from 100 (very clean) to 0 (highly corrupt)" based on the situation between 1 May 2022 and 30 April 2023. Denmark , Finland , New Zealand , Norway , Singapore , and Sweden are perceived as the least corrupt nations in
1617-409: Is similar to, but less extreme than, the climate of the Sahara desert located just to the north. The Sahel mainly receives a low to very low amount of precipitation annually. The steppe has a very long, prevailing dry season and a short rainy season. The precipitation is also extremely irregular, and varies considerably from season to season. Most of the rain usually falls during four to six months in
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#17328833911261694-515: Is the village of Tassara, but the commune itself covers a large distance. The larger villages include Agawan, Ajmelli, Azanag, Tarassadet, and Louberat. Tassara commune forms the north of the wedge shaped Abalak Department , itself forming the east central section of the Tahoua Region . Tahoua Region comprises eight Departments, forming much of the Nigerien border with Mali, and stopping just short of
1771-488: Is used to replace missing values). Subsequently, a standardized z score is calculated with an average centered around 0 and a standard deviation of 1 for each source from each country. Finally, these scores are converted back to a 0-100 scale with a mean of approximately 45 and a standard deviation of 20. Scores below 0 are set to 0, and scores exceeding 100 are capped at 100. This ensures consistent comparability across years since 2012. The resulting CPI index for each country
1848-608: The G5 Sahel , an anti-terrorism alliance, after the military regimes in Burkina Faso, Niger, and Mali withdrew. On 9 July 2020, the United States raised concerns over growing number of allegations of human rights violations and abuses by state security forces in Sahel. The US response came after Human Rights Watch released documents regarding the same on 1 July. Reports in March 2022 show militants are expanding and spreading out south of
1925-499: The Human Development Index (HDI), Global Peace Index (GPI), and Global Hunger Index (GHI). The result from the analysis carried out on the standardized data set shows that a positive linear relationship exists among all the variable considered except for CPI and GPI holding HDI and GHI constant which indicates a negative linear relationship between them. A study investigating the relationship between public governance and
2002-707: The Mali War . The Sahel is experiencing more severe weather due to climate change, exemplified by the extreme heatwave of March-April 2024 in Burkina Faso and Mali . This event was intensified by a 1.2°C global temperature increase from human activities. Corruption Perceptions Index The Corruption Perceptions Index ( CPI ) is an index that scores and ranks countries by their perceived levels of public sector corruption , as assessed by experts and business executives. The CPI generally defines corruption as an "abuse of entrusted power for private gain". The index
2079-580: The Minnesota Journal of International Law , which wrote that since the CPI may be subject to perceptual biases it therefore should not be considered by lawyers to be a measure of actual national corruption risk. Transparency International also publishes the Global Corruption Barometer , which ranks countries by corruption levels using direct surveys instead of perceived expert opinions, which has been under criticism for substantial bias from
2156-429: The "coldest period", the average high temperatures are between 27 and 33 °C (81 and 91 °F) and the average low temperatures are between 15 and 21 °C (59 and 70 °F). Everywhere in the Sahel, the average mean temperature is over 18 °C (64 °F). The Sahel has a high to very high sunshine duration year-round, between 2,400 hours (about 55% of the daylight hours) and 3,600 hours (more than 80% of
2233-471: The 44 signatories to the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention , as well as China, ZAO Hong Kong, India and Singapore, reinforces this concern. It found a significant decline in foreign bribery enforcement, only two out of 47 countries are now in active enforcement category. Other key findings were that no country is exempt from bribery by its nationals and related money laundering. Moreover, according to
2310-473: The Algerian border in the north. In the 2010 census, the entire commune's population was just 24,187, up from 17,952 in 2001. Tassara town—with a population of around 700 in the 1990s—was built as an administrative center in the 1970s in the wake of the drought and famine which caused such displacement amongst nomadic communities. Tassara was center of the nomadic Azawagh Arabs , and one writer has described it as
2387-558: The Arabic word سهل sahl "plain" instead. Around 4000 BC, the climate of the Sahara and the Sahel started to become drier at an exceedingly fast pace. This climate change caused lakes and rivers to shrink significantly and caused increasing desertification . This, in turn, decreased the amount of land conducive to settlements and caused migrations of farming communities to the more humid climate of West Africa . The Sahelian kingdoms were
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2464-488: The CPI. The CPI measures perception of corruption due to the difficulty of measuring absolute levels of corruption. Transparency International commissioned the University of Passau 's Johann Graf Lambsdorff to produce the CPI. Early CPIs used public opinion surveys. In order for all data to be aggregated into the CPI index, it is first necessary to carry out standardization during which all data points are converted to
2541-418: The Corruption Perception Index found that aspects of public administration like voice and accountability , political stability, and rule of law significantly influence how corrupt a country is perceived to be. This suggests that strong governance practices can be effective in reducing corruption. The Index’s methodology was criticized in the past. According to political scientist Dan Hough, three flaws in
2618-601: The Index include: Media outlets frequently use the raw numbers as a yardstick for government performance, without clarifying what the numbers mean. The local Transparency International chapter in Bangladesh disowned the index results after a change in methodology caused the country's scores to increase; media reported it as an "improvement". In a 2013 article in Foreign Policy , Alex Cobham suggested that CPI should be dropped for
2695-499: The Nigerien community's "defacto capital". The area forms the easternmost concentration of the Galgaliyya (or Hassaniya ) Arabic-speaking communities that stretch west into Mali . The Rural Commune of Tassara was created as an administrative unit in 2002 as part of a nationwide administrative reform and decentralization. At the local elections in July 2004 Mahamed Chérif ( PNDS-Tarayya )
2772-598: The Pacific tend to top the rankings over the long term. This means that these countries are perceived as having a low level of corruption in the public sector. These nations also generally have well-functioning judicial systems, a strong rule of law, and political stability – all factors that contribute to perceptions of clean governance. However, while these top-ranked countries have strong domestic institutions, their commitment to fighting corruption appears to be weak when it comes to their own financial systems and regulations affecting
2849-602: The Relationship between Corruption Perception Index and GDP in the Case of the Balkans" from 2020 confirms the positive co-integration relationship in Balkan countries between CPI and GDP and calculates the affecting rate of CPI GDP as 0.34. Moreover, the direction of causality between CPI and GDP was identified from CPI to GDP and, according to this, the hypothesis that CPI is the cause of GDP
2926-410: The Sahel region has experienced frequent droughts and megadroughts . One megadrought lasted from 1450 to 1700, 250 years. There was a major drought in the Sahel in 1914 caused by annual rains far below average, leading to large-scale famine. From 1951 to 2004, the Sahel experienced some of the most consistent and severe droughts in Africa. The 1960s saw a large increase in rainfall in the region, making
3003-468: The Sahel. The area has also seen a high prevalence of coups d'état , with military juntas currently ruling in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, and Sudan. The violent herder–farmer conflicts in Nigeria , Mali , Sudan and other countries in the Sahel region have been exacerbated by climate change , land degradation , and rapid population growth . Droughts and food shortages have been also linked to
3080-470: The closest match is with the 2000 TI Corruption Perceptions Index, which revealed a 0.75 correlation with the ranking of environmental performance. A 2022 study titled "Statistical Analyses on the Correlation of Corruption Perception Index and Some Other Indices in Nigeria" investigated the relationship between the Corruption Perception Index in Nigeria and other relevant indices. These other indices included
3157-510: The connection between corruption and income inequality on a global scale. The study's key finding is a robust positive association between income inequality (measured by the Gini coefficient ) and corruption (measured by the CPI). A study from 2001 shows that the more affected by corruption, the worse a country's environmental performance. Measuring national environmental performance according to 67 variables,
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3234-528: The data sources used for a particular country or territory. A study published in 2002 found a "very strong significant correlation" between the Corruption Perceptions Index and two other proxies for corruption: black market activity and an overabundance of regulation. All three metrics also had a highly significant correlation with the real gross domestic product per capita (RGDP/Cap); the Corruption Perceptions Index correlation with RGDP/Cap
3311-527: The daylight hours). The sunshine duration in the Sahel approaches desert levels, and is comparable to that in the Arabian Desert , for example, even though the Sahel is only a steppe and not a desert. The cloud cover is low to very low. For example, Niamey , Niger has 3,082 hours of bright sunshine; Gao , Mali has near 3,385 hours of sunshine; Timbuktu , Mali has 3,409 sunny hours, and N'Djamena , Chad has 3,205 hours of sunlight. For hundreds of years,
3388-475: The economic consequences of corruption perception, as defined by the CPI. The researchers found a correlation between a higher CPI and higher long-term economic growth, as well as an increase in GDP growth of 1.7% for every unit increase in a country's CPI score. Also shown was a power-law dependence linking higher CPI score to higher rates of foreign investment in a country. The research article "The Investigation of
3465-529: The existence of natural experiments on the level of corruption and compared the CPI with other subjective indicators have found that, while not perfect, the CPI is argued to be broadly consistent with one-dimensional measures of corruption. In the United States, many lawyers advise international businesses to consult the CPI when attempting to measure the risk of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations in different nations. This practice has been criticized by
3542-653: The founding of the International Fund for Agricultural Development . Between June and August 2010, famine struck the Sahel. Niger's crops failed to mature in the heat, 350,000 faced starvation, and 1,200,000 were at risk of famine. In Chad the temperature reached 47.6 °C (117.7 °F) on 22 June in Faya-Largeau , breaking a record set in 1961 at the same location. Niger tied its highest temperature record set in 1998, also on 22 June, at 47.1 °C in Bilma . That record
3619-571: The gathering marks the end of the rainy season pasturage. Herders gather their animals for the trek to southern grasslands where they will stay until returning with the rains in June. Tassarra was the site of an electoral conflict during the Nigerien parliamentary election, 2009 , an election later annulled by the February 2011 coup d'état government. At the official certification of the results on 11 November 2009,
3696-860: The giant prehistoric buffalo ( Pelorovis ) , and Bubal hartebeest (Alcelaphus buselaphus buselaphus) , along with large predators, such as the African wild dog (Lycaon pictus) , the Northwest African cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus hecki) , the Northeast African cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus soemmeringii) , and the lion (Panthera leo) . The larger species have been greatly reduced in number by over-hunting and competition with livestock, and several species are vulnerable (Dorcas gazelle, cheetah, lion and red-fronted gazelle), endangered ( Dama gazelle and African wild dog ), or extinct (the Scimitar-horned oryx
3773-426: The global level. Only 28 of the 180 countries measured by the CPI index have improved their corruption levels over the last twelve years, and 34 countries have significantly worsened. No significant change was recorded for 118 countries. Moreover, according to Transparency International, over 80 percent of the population lives in countries whose CPI index is lower than the global average of 43, and thus corruption remains
3850-438: The good of Transparency International. It argues that the CPI embeds a powerful and misleading elite bias in popular perceptions of corruption, potentially contributing to a vicious cycle and at the same time incentivizing inappropriate policy responses. Cobham writes, "the index corrupts perceptions to the extent that it's hard to see a justification for its continuing publication." Recent econometric analyses that have exploited
3927-541: The government announced that one seat, won by an independent candidate for the Tassara constituency, was annulled by the Constitutional Court of Niger , and a by-election for that seat would take place at an unspecified date. Following the outbreaks of civil war in Libya and Mali, Niger—including the Tassara area—saw great fears of instability. In June 2012 local officials oversaw the decommissioning of military weapons by
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#17328833911264004-399: The heat reached near-record levels over Chad and Niger, and in northern Niger about 20 people reportedly died of dehydration by 27 July. The Sahel region faces environmental issues that are contributing to global warming . If the change in climate in the Sahel region "is not slowed-down and desertification possibly reversed through sustainable practices and any form of reforestation , it
4081-520: The horses and camels were susceptible to the humidity and diseases of the tropics. The Western Sahel fell to France in the late 19th century as part of French West Africa . Chad was added in 1900 as part of French Equatorial Africa . The French territories in the Sahel were decolonized in 1960. The Sahel's easternmost region did not fall to the European powers but to the Khedivate of Egypt when it
4158-595: The inability of justice systems to control corruption. The latest edition of the World Justice Project's Rule of Law Index , which shows that in the past year, justice systems in most countries exhibited signs of deterioration, including increasing delays and lower levels of accessibility and affordability, also serves as evidence of the urgency of the situation. Conversely, because corruption implies disproportionate favoring of some groups or individuals over others, it prevents people from accessing justice. For example,
4235-726: The index since 2012, when the methodology was modified to allow comparison over time. The index is calculated in four steps: selection of source data, rescaling source data, aggregating the rescaled data and then reporting a measure for uncertainty. The goal of the data selection is to capture expert and business leader assessments of various public sector corruption practices. This includes bribery , misuse of public funds, abuse of public office for personal gain, nepotism in civil service, and state capture . Since 2012 CPI takes into account 13 different surveys and assessments from 12 different institutions. The institutions are: Countries need to be evaluated by at least three sources to appear in
4312-410: The index) and people's perceptions do not necessarily correspond to the actual level of corruption. To get a more comprehensive picture, the CPI should be used alongside other assessments. Furthermore, the CPI is better suited for analyzing long-term trends, as perceptions tend to change slowly. The following paragraph describes the methodology for calculating the index, which has been used to calculate
4389-467: The index. The original creator of the index, Johann Graf Lambsdorff, withdrew from work on the index in 2009, stating "In 1995 I invented the Corruption Perceptions Index and have orchestrated it ever since, putting TI on the spotlight of international attention. In August 2009 I have informed Cobus de Swardt, managing director of TI, that I am no longer available for doing the Corruption Perceptions Index." Research papers published in 2007 and 2008 examined
4466-613: The international environment. The CPI doesn't capture transnational corruption, so corrupt foreign business practices by companies from these countries don't affect their CPI scores. The example of the Netherlands highlights this issue. Despite a high CPI score, the Netherlands has a poor record of prosecuting companies that bribe foreign officials to win contracts, as seen in the Nigerian oil bribery case. The report Exporting Corruption 2022 , which assesses foreign bribery enforcement in 43 of
4543-465: The middle of the year, while the other months may remain absolutely dry. The interior of the Sahel region generally receives between 200 mm and 700 mm of rain yearly. A system of subdivisions often adopted for the Sahelian climate based on annual rainfall is as follows: the Saharan-Sahelian climate, with mean annual precipitation between around 100 and 200 mm (such as Khartoum , Sudan),
4620-580: The most common, along with Senegalia senegal and Senegalia laeta . Other tree species include Adansonia digitata , Commiphora africana , Balanites aegyptiaca , Faidherbia albida , Borassus aethiopum , Vitellaria paradoxa , Olea europaea , Arbutus unedo , Phoenix canariensis , Hyphaene compressa , Cupressus sempervirens , Quercus coccifera , Quercus suber , Pinus nigra , Populus nigra , Ceratonia siliqua , Salix alba , Afzelia africana , Kigelia africana , Sclerocarya birrea , and Boscia senegalensis . In
4697-477: The most significant improvements in the CPI score over the last twelve years were recorded by Uzbekistan, Tanzania, Ukraine, Côte d'Ivoire, the Dominican Republic and Kuwait. Corruption Perceptions Index table: Corruption Perceptions Index table: Corruption Perceptions Index table: Corruption Perceptions Index table: The advanced economies of Northern and Western Europe, North America, and Asia and
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#17328833911264774-412: The north of the Sahel to around 700–1,000 mm (28–39 in) in the south. The Sahel is mostly covered in grassland and savanna, with areas of woodland and shrubland. Grass cover is fairly continuous across the region, dominated by annual grass species such as Cenchrus biflorus , Schoenefeldia gracilis and Aristida stipoides . Species of acacia are the dominant trees, with Acacia tortilis
4851-433: The northern drier region more accessible. There was a push, supported by governments, for people to move northwards. When the long drought period from 1968 through 1974 began, grazing quickly became unsustainable and large-scale denuding of the terrain followed. Like the drought in 1914, this led to a large-scale famine, but this time somewhat tempered by international visibility and an outpouring of aid. This catastrophe led to
4928-500: The northern part of the Sahel, areas of desert shrub, including Panicum turgidum and Aristida sieberiana , alternate with areas of grassland and savanna. During the long dry season, many trees lose their leaves and the predominantly annual grasses die. The Sahel was formerly home to large populations of grazing mammals, including the scimitar-horned oryx (Oryx dammah) , dama gazelle (Gazella dama) , Dorcas gazelle (Gazella dorcas) , red-fronted gazelle (Gazella rufifrons) ,
5005-454: The powerful elite. Transparency International has warned that a country with a clean CPI score may still be linked to corruption internationally. For example, while Sweden had the 3rd best CPI score in 2015, one of its state-owned companies, TeliaSonera , was facing allegations of bribery in Uzbekistan. As stated by Transparency International in 2024, the level of corruption stagnates at
5082-424: The region lies between 200 and 400 meters (660 and 1,310 ft) in elevation. Several isolated plateaus and mountain ranges rise from the Sahel (e.g. Marrah Mountains , Aïr Mountains , Ennedi Plateau ), but are designated as separate ecoregions because their flora and fauna are distinct from the surrounding lowlands (e.g. East Saharan woodlands ). Annual rainfall varies from around 100–200 mm (4–8 in) in
5159-514: The region, resulting in a rapid increase in population. In recent times, various coups , insurgencies , terrorism and foreign interventions have taken place in many Sahel countries, especially across former Françafrique . The Sahel spans 5,900 km (3,670 mi) from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Red Sea in the east, in a belt several hundred to a thousand kilometers (c. 600 miles) wide. It covers an area of 3,053,200 square kilometers (1,178,850 sq mi). Representing
5236-503: The strict Sahelian climate, with mean annual precipitation between around 200 and 700 mm (such as Niamey , Niger) and the Sahelian-Sudanese climate, with mean annual precipitation between around 700 and 900 mm (such as Ouagadougou , Burkina Faso). The relative humidity in the steppe is low to very low, often between 10% and 25% during the dry season and between 25% and 75% during the rainy season. The least humid places have
5313-638: The violence, extremism and instability of the region. In March 2020, the United States sent a special envoy for the Sahel region to combat the rising violence from terrorist groups. The Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need has highlighted the fact that the Sahel has become one of the most dangerous regions in the world for Christians. As of 2024, a wave of new military juntas in Africa, favoring Russian mercenaries over Western forces and UN peacekeepers, has intensified violence. This led Mauritania and Chad to disband
5390-548: The world's fastest-growing terrorist organization. In 2023, fatalities from conflict in the central Sahel rose by 38%, according to data from the research organization Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project. In the wake of the Libyan Crisis beginning in 2011, terrorist organizations operating in the Sahel, including Boko Haram , Islamic State and al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), have greatly exacerbated
5467-460: The world, ranking consistently high among international financial transparency , while the most apparently corrupt are Syria , South Sudan , and Venezuela (scoring 13), as well as Somalia (scoring 11). Although the CPI is currently the most widely used indicator of corruption globally, it is worth emphasizing that there are some limitations. First, the CPI does not distinguish between individual types of corruption (some are not even included in
5544-407: Was conquered by Muhammad Ali in the 1820s. By 1899 it came under British rule until granted independence at Egypt's behest in 1956. According to The Economist , in recent years the Sahel has become the epicenter of terrorist violence , contributing to 35% of all global deaths from terrorism by 2021, with Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin , an al-Qaeda-affiliated group, identified as
5621-399: Was accepted. The working paper Corruption and Economic Growth: New Empirical Evidence from 2019 emphasizes that many previous studies used the CPI for their analysis before 2012 (when the index was difficult to compare over time) and therefore may be biased. At the same time, it presents new empirical evidence based on data for 175 over the period 2012-2018. The results show that corruption
5698-588: Was broken the next day, when Bilma hit 48.2 °C (118.8 °F). The hottest temperature recorded in Sudan was reached on 25 June, at 49.6 °C (121.3 °F) in Dongola , breaking a record set in 1987. Niger reported on 14 July that diarrhoea , starvation, gastroenteritis , malnutrition and respiratory diseases had sickened or killed many children. The new military junta appealed for international food aid and took serious steps to call on overseas help. On 26 July,
5775-571: Was elected mayor On 15 April 2010, the Council of Ministers appointed Mahamed Chérif administrator (Administrateur Délégué) from the town and Abdou Adamou to head the administrative post ( chef de poste administratif ) of Tassara. Every two years in October, Tassara and the neighboring village of Tillia host a gathering of local Arab pastoralists. Like the Tuareg Cure Salee of neighboring Ingall ,
5852-599: Was introduced in Sahel in 1980 by the Development Workshop, achieving since then a high social impact in the region. A major initiative to combat desertification in the Sahel region via reforestation and other interventions is the Great Green Wall . Major dust storms are a frequent occurrence as well. During November 2004, a number of major dust storms hit Chad , originating in the Bodélé Depression . This
5929-484: Was the strongest, explaining over three-quarters of the variance. (Note that a lower rating on this scale reflects greater corruption so that countries with higher RGDPs generally had less corruption.) Alex Cobham of the Center for Global Development reported in 2013 that "many of the staff and chapters" at Transparency International , the publisher of the Corruption Perceptions Index, "protest internally" over concerns about
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