Burkina Faso, Chad, Cameroon, Gambia, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal are the ten countries of the Sahel region of heightened instability since the 2011 Arab spring. This is due to frequent terrorist violent attacks, the effects of climate change (like the disruptive rise of temperatures, more than global average, contributing to desertification and water scarcity), unstable institutions unable to respond properly to the needs of the population. Direct human rights violations from terrorist groups such as ISIS and Al-Qaeda and the army itself, fragile economies and scarce food and water resources, forced migration (both internal and external) have been proven to be key factors, difficult to eradicate. The attempts and the resources employed to manage the crisis have been insufficient for the urgency and the seriousness of the former.
Islamist terrorist groups represent the biggest threat in the region. Groups like Al-Qaeda are spreading panic and violence by killing civilians, burning down homes, abducting people, all amounting to war crimes.
Counteraction tactics from the military are equally brutal. In Burkina Faso, for example, Human Rights Watch declared that 223 civilians have been summarily executed by the army, under the accusation of sympathising with terrorists. Thus, to limit extremist groups, government counterstrategies have generated more violence, leading to massacres of civilians. Human Rights Watch reports that these human rights violations amount to crimes against humanity.
The epicentre of the crisis is to be found in Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali, where 4 million people are now displaced, says UNHCR. Women and children account for 80% of IDPs, due to limited access to jobs and education, food insecurity, institutional unresponsiveness but also due to gender-based violence. Women and children, more vulnerable in situations of crisis, look for safer refuge as an escape. Sima Bahous, Executive Director of UN Women, declared that women are being erased from public spaces, are denied education, and do not have an outlet for representation and protection from terrorist attacks. Furthermore, the highest rates of child marriage are to be found in the Sahel region, highlighting a huge breach of human rights, more specifically the rights of the child. The grievous consequences that women are facing in this area helps to understand the different issues and degrees of suffering related to gender. Women have been consistently targeted, being the major victims of the crisis. Extremist groups thus abduct and abuse women with impunity.
To worsen the situation, in 2025 the countries above withdrew from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and from the International Criminal Court (ICC), removing the already few available options of civilian protection and accountability. This means that the situation could be further exacerbated by the lack of supranational guarantees, under very serious allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity, both from governments and insurgent groups. Victims are likely to have less outlets for getting justice under serious and harmful circumstances, in a deep climate of humanitarian crisis.
To read more, please visit:
- https://www.unhcr.org/news/briefing-notes/unhcr-calls-urgent-international-support-advance-solutions-sahel-s-forcibly
- https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/09/24/sahel-countries-icc-withdrawal-endangers-civilians
- https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/10/1166076
- https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/08/1165596
