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“Gar-Si Sahel Project”:

the relevance of environmental matters

By Maj. Michele VIALE

From a geographical and ecological point of view we can consider the African Region of Sahel
(from the Arabic word “Sahil”: edge of the
desert) as a transitional area, a semi-arid strip
between the Sahara desert on the north and the
tropical savannas on the south, which runs
from Mauritania to Senegal on the Atlantic
coast and from Sudan to Eritrea.
Speaking about the originality of this area,
there are other points of view which have to be
considered: in fact, for instance, it is also a
transitional zone in the religious geography of
the continent, marking the border between
North Africa with a Muslim majority and the
predominant Christian countries of the west coast, the interior and the east coast, as Kenya.
The desert is a significant characteristic which has influenced the way of life of the local
communities and it has limited the possibility of a further development for those societies.
Nowadays the Sahel area is becoming one of the areas most affected by the climate change and it
dramatically suffers the consequences of the greenhouse effect despite the minimal responsibility
that can be attributed to it (between 2 and 4% of annual emissions). Then the climate change acts on
an already precarious political and economic framework. Very wide - extending from Mauritania to
Eritrea - and with a strong demographic growth, the Region has now 135 million inhabitants, but
this number could rise to 330 million in 2050 and almost to 670 million in 2100. Every year,
hundreds of thousands of migrants pass
through these unstable and impoverished
areas to reach North Africa, and then,
eventually, Europe.
In order to face the numerous, complex and
challenging problems that characterize the
Sahel area, the European multinational project
GAR-SI SAHEL (Group of Action Rapid
Surveillance and Intervention in the Sahel)
aims to contribute to the stabilization of the
Sahel areas through the creation of Police
Units which have to be robust, flexible, mobile, multidisciplinary and self-sufficient in the whole
Sahel (Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad and Niger with the addition of Senegal).

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