“The Sahara is one of the harshest environments in the world. Ranging across the West African nations of Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Algeria and Libya, it’s drought-prone and crawling with scorpions. But, for decades, the primary foe of the Tuareg people has not been nature but politics—restrictive borderlines, repressive governments and groups looking to exploit the region’s mineral wealth.

“‘We don’t belong to any country, but the lands where we live are rich in [gas], oil and uranium, so governments and multinational companies are interested in our lands,’ they say. ‘This is only a problem of money and power—the problem of the entire world.’”

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