In some parts of Africa, such as the highlands of eastern Africa, the Sahel and the deserts of southern Africa, malaria is not a constant threat, but comes in sudden epidemics.
They want action in regions including Sahel, West Africa, where more than 18 million people are suffering from the impact of drought and high food prices.
Drought-related emergencies, particularly in the Horn of Africa and Sahel regions, were unlikely to go away in the future, projected scenarios showed.
Nigerian side Enyimba, the defending champions, are in Group A with Tunisia's Etoile Sahel, Ivorian side Africa Sport and newcomers Bakili Bullets of Malawi.
Governments with the financial resources have been able to pursue alternative measures within the global marketplace to achieve this goal, while others are re-examining their development and trade policies, and even turning to emergency relief to overcome food crises, such as those experienced in the Horn of Africa and Sahel due to drought.
Throughout West Africa and the Sahel, Westerners have become targets for both militant groups and criminal gangs, which are sometimes indistinguishable.
Urgent action is needed to stop drought in West Africa's Sahel region turning into a humanitarian disaster affecting 13 million people, Oxfam says.
He stressed that the crisis is having "far-reaching effects" in West Africa and the Sahel, and that it has heightened the terrorism threat in the subregion.
Superstorm Sandy in the United States, drought in Africa's Sahel, a bitter cold snap in Europe and floods in China were just some of the severe weather events of 2012.
"French security officials have publicly said for some time that they are especially concerned that Westerners could come back from North Africa or the Sahel to launch attacks, " Lebovich told CNN.
CNN: Algeria attack changes terror landscape in North Africa
Foreign governments, which supported Mr Abdallahi's government as a bulwark of stability against the perceived threat of Islamist extremists in the Sahel, the swathe of Africa just to the south of the Sahara desert, reacted angrily.
Last year Hugues Lagrange, a sociologist, reported that black youths with origins in Africa's Sahel (eg from Mali and Mauritania) were more likely to be involved in crime than those from other parts of Africa, including the Maghreb.
ECONOMIST: Six years on, the banlieues are still a world apart
The hearings should have been more substantive because the United States is at a dangerous inflection point in North Africa and the Sahel region to its south, and leaders in both parties need to think carefully about how deeply we want to get involved in this volatile part of the world.
CNN: In N. Africa terror battle, U.S. should lead from way behind
It says its objective is to spread jihad to West Africa rather than confine itself to the Sahel and Maghreb regions - the main focus of AQIM.
The Vision 2030 initiative is keen to align with regional economic communities such as the East African Community, Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) and Community of Sahel-Saharan States among others.
From Syria to the Sahel, Yemen to Sudan, the eastern Horn of Africa to the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, these unarmed aid workers risk their lives to provide life-saving assistance to millions of men, women and children.
WHITEHOUSE: Statement by the Press Secretary on World Humanitarian Day
Enyimba are joined in the final four by Tunisia's Etoile Sahel, who topped Group A despite their 3-2 defeat by Africa Sports in Abidjan.
The hostage crisis in Algeria is a "terrible warning" that the conflict in Mali "is not a matter between France and one of its former colonies in West Africa" but "a sign of the growing destabilization of the whole Sahel region, " the paper says.
Lyse Doucet began her BBC career in Africa where she spent four years covering events in West and North Africa including a spate of military coups, and recurrent drought and famine in the Sahel.
应用推荐