A large-scale , drought-induced famine Catastrophe occurred Coming_to_be in Africa 's Sahel region and many parts of the neighboring Sénégal River Area from February to August 2010 .

The Sahel is the ecoclimatic and biogeographic zone of transition between the Sahara desert in the north of Africa and the Sudanian savannas in the south , covering an area of 3,053,200 square kilometers .

The operation Military_operation ended Process_end on July 15 , 2014 , and was replaced by Operation Barkhane , launched Process_start on August 1 , 2014 to fight Islamist fighters in the Sahel .

The Insurgency in the Maghreb refers to Islamist militant and terrorist Terrorism activity in the Maghreb and Sahel regions of North Africa since 2002 .