Nigeria's Deserts

Nigeria is a nation located in the northwestern portion of Africa. Its northern plains, while not part of the Saharan desert, have been showing periodic signs of desertification, or "the persistent degradation of dryland ecosystems," according to greenfacts.org. Those plains are part of the Sahel, a band that stretches across northern Africa, separating the Sahara from the Sudanian Savanna. The Sahel is in transition between the northerly desert conditions and the southerly tropical grasslands. During prolonged and severe droughts, Nigeria's northern plains experience desertification and the accompanying crop failures and subsequent famines.

  1. Desert or Not?

    • The lines between what defines the Sahara, the Sehal and the Sudanian Savanna are measured in rainfall and shift constantly and erratically. For at least the last 40 years, the Sehal (including northern Nigeria) has experienced significant drought. Deforestation is somewhat to blame for the continuing drought conditions in the region. Severe droughts have come at least once a century since the 1700s, but there has been a sharp increase in the duration and frequency of these droughts since the latter half of the 20th century. During these droughts, desertification occurs and the region resembles the Sahara far more than it does the Sudanian Savanna. Scientific data suggests that multi-decade droughts have been common throughout northwestern Africa for thousands of years and will continue to be so.

    20th-Century Droughts

    • During the 20th century, severe droughts hit the Nigerian Sehal in 1910s, 1940s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. During the worst of these droughts, crops failed and famines occurred. A civil war broke out during a drought from the late-60s to the early-70s, increasing the suffering experienced in Nigeria's northern plains. There was a brief period of recovery in the region during the late-70s, and spots of significant rainfall during the latter half of the 90s and into this decade.

    2010 Famine

    • In 2010, a famine broke out in the Sahel, following heavy rains in late 2009 and a heat wave, droughts and flooding in 2010. Lake Chad, which borders Nigeria's northeastern borders and is a source of water to more than 20 million people in the region, has been drying up for 50 years. The Nigerian portion of its shores are protected and there have been talks of diverting the nearby Ubangi River in order to supply it with fresh water, but nothing has been decided. As of November 2010, millions of Nigerians are at risk of famine. Nigerian harvests are failing even as hundreds of thousands of refugees are crowding the northern plains. The arid lands have refused to suck up rainfall and flooding is occurring. There are hopes that the drought will end by early 2011.