What is Sahel?
[[File:Map sahel.jpg|thumb|The area marked in yellow shows the Sahel zone in Africa]] [[File:Map of the Sahel.png|thumb|Another map, more exact]] [[File:Camels in Chad.png|thumb|Camels at a waterhole in [[Chad]]]] The '''Sahel''' is a narrow belt of land in [[North Africa]]. It is a [[strip]] of land about 5500 [[kilometer]]s long and 450 kilometres wide. It lies at the southern edge of the [[Sahara Desert]] [[File:Meet me on the desert.jpg|thumb|The ground is too dry for agriculture.]] The Sahel has a tropical semi-arid [[climate]]. It is between the dry [[desert]] land to the north and the [[forest]] areas to the south. The temperature is high throughout the year. There is little [[rainfall]] in the Sahel (between 100 and 150&nbsp;mm and 600mm). It comes during [[summer]] months and may be unreliable. It may be very dry in some years, especially if a large area of low pressure, which brings rain, is not carried North over the Sahel by strong winds.<ref>Azam (ed) 1999. Conflict and growth in Africa: the Sahel. ''Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development''. ISBN 92-64-17101-0</ref> Sahel is the [[Arabic language|Arabic]] word for 'edge' or 'shore'. The Sahel is facing a big problem, [[desertification]]. The distribution of rainfall in the Sahel region is uneven. The rainfall in the region has been below average since 1970. The Sahel is becoming drier on the whole. The problem of drought affects most of the countries in the Sahel. As a result, crops and animals die. There is no vegetation to protect the soil, which is then removed by flash floods and strong wind. This leads to soil erosion. Finally, the desert spreads towards the surrounding areas. With better medical services, the birth rate increases and the death rate decreases in the Sahel. As a result, the population in the Sahel is growing. To meet the ever-increasing demand for firewood, a lot of trees have been cut down. More land has become barren. This is called [[deforestation]]. Furthermore, people farm intensively in order to grow