From a veteran journalist, an urgent first-hand account of the internationally fueled debacle unfolding in Africa’s Sahel.

The Sahel region in Africa, from Mauritania in the West to Sudan in the East, is in crisis. Ulf Laessing, a veteran journalist who has lived and worked in the region for years, leverages unprecedented access to diplomats, politicians, jihadists, smugglers, and migrants; travels to gold mines to expose an illegal trade worth billions; meets those risking everything to escape and the people who profit from their desperation; and reveals how European diplomatic and military blunders opened the door for Russian exploitation. Now, with jihadists marching on Mali’s capital, Bamako, and French influence over its former colonies waning, the Sahel is sinking deeper into a tragedy that will have far-reaching consequences. The Road to Bamako is a fast-paced book that gives a rare first-hand account of this political and humanitarian disaster on Europe’s doorstep.