While climate change has not created jihadists in Mali, its effects on the livelihoods of already marginalized communities has created fertile grounds for recruitment.

Attempts by the Macina Liberation Front to rally Fulani herdsmen to its cause should not lead to pastoralists in Western Africa being portrayed as terrorists.

The Sahel has become an economic, social and political breeding ground for violence but donor spending does not seem to address the region’s main challenges.