Mali: Drought, Expanding Deserts and 'Food for Jihad' Drive Mali's Conflict

Apr 27, 2015 | Chris Arsenault, Reuters
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Life has never been easy in Moussa Majga's corner of northern Mali, a desert region of leafless trees, mud huts and roaming gunmen. For years, violence has plagued Majga's dusty town, the scene of clashes between government forces and Tuareg-led separatists who took advantage of a 2012 coup in Mali's capital Bamako to escalate their uprising. But today, the biggest security concern for the ageing chieftain is a new cycle of ferocious droughts he blames on climate change, that is savaging his people.