The Arabic word Sahel means shore or coast, and everyone knows coastlines recede. The name Sahel likens the appearance of this band of real estate stretching across Africa to a coastline separating the Saharan sands from the rest of the continent. The Sahara is encroaching on the Sahel, eating away at it mile by mile. Stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea, the Sahel passes through more than a dozen countries, including Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, and Eritrea. Not often a destination for visitors, this region transitions arid North Africa to the moister sub-Sahara. It’s home to plants and animals that exist nowhere else on Earth.
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