Desert Flashpoint: Crisis in the Sahel

A crisis in Africa is supercharging the Far Right in Europe – and Russian mercenaries are fighting to make it worse. After Western interventions drove the failing states of the Sahel region into ruin, extremists from Islamic State to Boko Haram stepped into the power vacuum. Civil wars and climate change rendering vast areas of the Sahel uninhabitable have created a refugee crisis which European demagogues can feast upon. And now Putin’s proxies are involved.

Arthur Snell finds out how the misery of the Sahel people is generating hard right policy in Britain, neo-fascism in Italy… and a dangerous spin in the global destabilisation game.

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• “This is a region on Europe’s borders in deep crisis – and most people know nothing about it.” – Arthur Snell
• “What the radical right populists did in Britain was scare the Conservatives so much over immigration that the Tories shifted right.”– Tarik Abou-Chadi
• “The beneficiaries are the far right politicians in Europe and the cynical opportunists in Moscow.” – Arthur Snell
• “One thing you learn quickly is that pressures on one part Europe’s borders rapidly become pressures on other parts.” – Alex Clarkson

Photograph: Getty Images

Written and presented by Arthur Snell. Produced by Robin Leeburn. Assistant producer: Jacob Archbold. Original music by Paul Hartnoll – https://www.orbitalofficial.com . Group Editor Andrew Harrison. Doomsday Watch is a Podmasters production.

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