Geography
Sahel Region Quiz
The vast African transition zone between desert and savanna — how well do you know the Sahel?
The vast African transition zone between desert and savanna — how well do you know the Sahel?
Lake Chad has shrunk by approximately 90% since the 1960s, from 25,000 to under 2,500 square kilometers. This quiz tests your knowledge of Africa's Sahel with 50 challenging questions on the vast transition zone between the Sahara Desert and the lush savannas to the south, covering its geography, climate, peoples, history, and the monumental challenges it faces.
Each round presents 10 randomized questions from a pool of 50, with four multiple-choice options and instant feedback after every answer. Your final score comes with a performance tier and shareable results.
You'll explore the Sahel's geography stretching 5,400 km from the Atlantic to the Red Sea, its devastating droughts, the shrinking of Lake Chad, the Great Green Wall initiative aiming to restore 100 million hectares, the diverse peoples including Tuareg, Fulani, and Hausa, the ancient learning centers of Timbuktu, and the security and demographic challenges facing the region's 300 million people.
The Sahel stretches across parts of Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, and Eritrea. This semiarid belt runs approximately 5,400 km from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Red Sea in the east, forming the transition zone between the Sahara Desert to the north and the wetter savannas to the south.
The Great Green Wall is an African Union initiative launched in 2007 to combat desertification by planting a mosaic of trees and vegetation across 8,000 km from Dakar, Senegal to Djibouti. The goal is to restore 100 million hectares of degraded land by 2030. By 2024, approximately 18 million hectares had been restored.
Lake Chad has shrunk by approximately 90% from 25,000 km\u00b2 in the 1960s to under 2,500 km\u00b2 today due to a combination of reduced rainfall from prolonged Sahel droughts, increased water extraction for irrigation by surrounding populations, and rising temperatures accelerating evaporation. Over 30 million people in four countries depend on the lake for water, fishing, and agriculture.
Last updated: April 2026