Chad and Mauritania buck the trend of tourism in the Sahel and Southern Sahara | News
A new group tour to Chad will launch next year, allowing guests to explore some of the Sahara’s most striking landscapes.
High peaks can be found in the vast desert sea, along with oases and waterholes where the last Saharan crocodiles live.
Chad is located in the Sahel – an area that makes headlines for all the wrong reasons and is known for being particularly vulnerable to climate change, insecurity and political instability.
However, improvements have been made in Chad in recent years, where a new e-visa has been introduced to encourage more international visitors.
This is something that is reflected further west in Mauritania, which has also recently introduced a new online visa system. The number of tourists in Mauritania is difficult to verify, but riding the famous iron ore train through the desert became so popular with visitors that the government had to try to ban it.
Next year, Untamed Borders will take guests on a 17-day expedition to Chad’s Ennedi Plateau and earlier this year it launched a new group tour to Mauritania, with more to follow over the next twelve months.
Other parts of the Sahara are also seeing increased interest, including southern Algeria, and tourists have also returned to southern Libya.
In addition to untouched nature, Chad, Mauritania and southern Libya are also home to fascinating UNESCO World Heritage sites. An increase in tourism to these countries not only showcases these beautiful places to foreign visitors, but also provides a valuable source of employment in countries where opportunities are scarce, lifting people out of poverty.
However, it is not all good news for the Sahel and Southern Sahara: there are still major problems in countries such as Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, with fears of conflict and tensions spreading beyond borders.
Over the past thirty years, large parts of the region have been difficult places to travel through. They are located on major human and drug trafficking routes, in conflict-affected countries that have earned these countries a lawless reputation.
However, for the adventurous tourist, parts of the Sahel and Southern Sahara do offer relative tranquility, with beautiful nature, rich history and exciting experiences to enjoy.
Untamed Borders’ new group trip to Chad departs in February 2027, with the next group trips to Mauritania and southern Libya in November this year. The company also organizes group trips to the Algerian Sahara, departing in November this year and January 2027. Private trips are available in all these countries, plus many other destinations in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
