title: African humid period

text: High latitude Africa has not undergone large scale changes in the past 11,700 years; the Atlas Mountains may have blocked the monsoon from expanding further north. However, river valley and cave deposits showing a moister climate in southern Morocco, vegetation changes in the Middle Atlas, several floods in Tunisian rivers and ecosystem changes which impacted steppe-dependent rodents of Northern Africa have been linked to the AHP.


title: African humid period

text: In the Pleistocene and Holocene humidity in the Mediterranean is often correlated to humidity in the Sahara, and the early-mid Holocene climate of Iberia, Italy, Negev and Northern Africa was wetter than today; in Sicily wettening correlates with ITCZ changes in Northern Africa. Mediterranean precipitation is brought by Mediterranean cyclones and the westerlies; either increased precipitation from the westerlies, northward moisture transport from Africa or monsoonal precipitation extending into the Mediterranean may have rendered it wetter. The connection between the African Monsoon and Mediterranean precipitation is unclear and it was winter rainfall that increased predominantly, although separating monsoonal and non-monsoonal precipitation can be difficult.


title: African humid period

text: The Mediterranean Sea became less saline during the AHP, in part due to increased precipitation from the westerlies but also from increased river discharge in Africa, leading to the formation of sapropel layers when the increased runoff led to the Mediterranean becoming more stratified and eutrophied, with changes in the main water masses of the sea. The S1 sapropel layer is specifically associated with the AHP and with increased discharge of the Nile and other African rivers. These processes together with decreased dust transport by wind led to changes in the sediment patterns of the Mediterranean, and increased marine nutrient availability and food web productivity in the Mediterranean, which impacted the development of deep-sea corals.


title: African humid period

text: In the Levant, wetter conditions during the AHP are recorded from Jeita Cave in Lebanon and Soreq Cave in Israel while the Dead Sea and other southern European lakes were low during this period. This is unlike some earlier wet periods in the Sahara; possibly the stronger winter-summer insolation gradient in these earlier wet periods created a different moisture pattern than during the Holocene. The northern Mediterranean may have been drier, with more wildfire activity, during the AHP.


title: African humid period

text: The effects, if any, of the African humid period on Southern Africa have been unclear. Originally it was proposed that the orbitally driven changes would imply a dry period in Southern Africa which would have given way to moister conditions as the northern AHP ended, as the ITCZ should shift its average position between the two hemispheres. However, the lack of paleoclimatology data with sufficient time resolution from Southern Africa has made it difficult to assess the climate there during the AHP. More recently obtained paleoclimate data have suggested however that southern Africa was actually wetter during the AHP rather than drier, reaching as far as north-northwest Madagascar 23° south and as far as the catchment of the Orange River. The area between Lake Tanganyika and Lake Malawi has been interpreted as the limit of the AHP's influence.


title: African humid period

text: Conversely, and consistent with the opposite reaction pattern of the Southern Hemisphere, the Zambezi River reached its lowest discharge during the AHP, and the AHP did not reach southern or southeastern Africa. There may have been opposite changes in precipitation between southeast Africa and tropical East Africa, separated by a "hinge zone". Particular changes occurred in central southern Africa, where a dry period co-occurred with an expansion of Lake Makgadikgadi; presumably the lake during this dry interval was nourished by increased wetness over the Okavango River catchment in the Angolan Highlands due to the AHP; peatlands formed in Angola during the AHP. In general there is little consistency between Northern and Southern Africa in terms of hydrological changes during the Holocene, and nowhere are both the start and end of the AHP apparent. Orbitally-mediated changes in Northern Hemisphere climate affected the Southern Hemisphere through oceanic pathways involving sea surface temperatures. Additionally, wetter periods unrelated to the AHP may have occurred after deglaciation in Southern Africa.


title: African humid period

text: Estimates of the exact amount of increased precipitation vary widely. During the African humid period, Saharan rainfall increased to , and values exceeding may have spread to 19–21° northern latitude. In the eastern Sahara, a gradient from increment in the north to in the south has been identified. An area with less than may have remained in the Eastern Sahara however, although its driest parts may have received 20-fold more precipitation than today. Precipitation in the Sahara probably reached no more than , with large uncertainty.


title: African humid period

text: Other reconstructed values of the precipitation increase indicate an annual increase of about in Africa, with strong regional variation. From lake levels precipitation increases of 20–33% or 50–100%/40-150% have been inferred for East Africa, with an increase of 40% reconstructed for Northern Africa. In the early Holocene, there appears to have been an eastward- and northward-decreasing trend of humidity. Additionally, at Tayma in Arabia a threefold increase appears to have occurred and precipitation in the Wahiba Sands of Oman may have reached .


title: African humid period

text: The El Niño–Southern Oscillation is a major climate variability mode. Paleoclimatology records from Ecuador and the Pacific Ocean indicate that during the early and middle Holocene ENSO variability was suppressed by about 30–60%, which can be only partially explained through orbital forcing. The Green Sahara may have suppressed ENSO activity, forcing a La Niña–like climate state, in a climate model this is accompanied by decreased upwelling and deepening of the thermocline in the Eastern Pacific as the Walker circulation shifts westward. In addition, Atlantic Niño sea surface temperature patterns develop in the Atlantic Ocean.


title: African humid period

text: Remote effects of the AHP on the monsoons of the Northern Hemisphere have also been studied. In climate models, the strengthened and expanding monsoons of Africa and Asia alter the atmospheric circulation of the planet, inducing a wetter East Asian Monsoon and drying across tropical South America and central-eastern North America. The reduced dust emission warms the North Atlantic and increases westerly flow into the North American Monsoon, strengthening it. The far-field precipitation changes reach as far as Europe and Australia. Discrepancies between modelled and reconstructed northward extension and precipitation in the Asian monsoon regions and the North American Monsoon area may be explained through these remote effects.


title: African humid period

text: Sun "et al." 2020 proposed that the greening of the Sahara during the AHP can increase precipitation over the Middle East even if neither the African nor the Indian monsoons reach it. During spring, the increased vegetation forces anomalous atmospheric circulations that direct moisture transport from the Mediterranean, the Red Sea and eastern tropical Africa into the Middle East, increasing precipitation and agricultural productivity there. This could explain increased precipitation in the Middle East during the AHP: A wet climate occurred in the Middle East during the early Holocene, leading to the Ubaid period of settlement in Mesopotamia, followed by dry phases around 5,500 years ago and a concomitant reduction in simulated wheat yield.


title: African humid period

text: The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) transports heat from the Southern into the Northern Hemisphere and is implicated in starting the Holocene AHP an earlier AHPs after the end of an ice age. Various studies have been conducted to determine which effects reduced dust supply and the greening of the Sahara would have had on its intensity, with conflicting results on which effects would predominate. Increased heat transport either through the atmosphere or the ocean would result in warming in the Arctic.


title: African humid period

text: One climate model has indicated that a greener Sahara and reduced dust output would have increased tropical cyclone activity, especially over the Atlantic but also in most other tropical cyclone basins. Changes in the intensity of the storms, decreases in wind shear, changes in atmospheric circulation and less dust in the atmosphere, which results in warmer oceans, are responsible for this phenomenon, despite an expected decrease of tropical wave activity over the Atlantic in climate models. The net effect could be a global increase in tropical cyclone activity, a westward shift within the ocean basins and in the Atlantic Ocean a shift towards later dates. While there are no good paleotempestology data for the time of the African humid period that could confirm or refute this theory and many of these records are specific for particular locations, hurricane activity including past strikes in Puerto Rico and in Vieques appear to correlate with the strength of the West African Monsoon and increased precipitation on the northern Yucatan Peninsula during the middle Holocene could be explained by increased hurricane activity during the AHP. On the other hand, at Grand Bahama Bank and the Dry Tortugas of South Florida a decrease of hurricane activity took place during the AHP and dust emission is not always anti-correlated to hurricane activity. Finally, the northward movement of the ITCZ during the AHP may have caused a corresponding northward movement of tropical cyclogenesis areas and storm tracks in the Atlantic Ocean, which could also explain decreased hurricane activity in the Bahamas and Dry Tortugas.


title: African humid period

text: Some gaps with less precipitation took place during the late glacial and the Holocene. During the Younger Dryas 12,500–11,500 years ago, the North Atlantic and Europe became much colder again and there was a phase of drought in the area of the African humid period, extending over both East Africa, where lake levels dropped in many places, southern Africa and West Africa. The dry interval extended to India and the Mediterranean where dune activity occurred in the Negev. At the end of the Younger Dryas, precipitation, lake levels and river runoff increased again, although south of the equator the return of humid conditions was slower than the relatively abrupt change to its north.


title: African humid period

text: Another dry phase took place about 8,200 years ago, spanning East Africa and Northern Africa as documented by various lines of evidence such as decreased water levels in lakes. It coincided with cooling in the Northern Atlantic, in surrounding landmasses such as Greenland and around the world; the drought may be related to the 8.2 kiloyear event which separates the Greenlandian and Northgrippian stages of the Holocene and lasted for about one millennium. The 8,200 year event has also been noted in the Maghreb, where it is associated with a transition of the Capsian culture as well as with cultural changes both in the Sahara and the Mediterranean; at the Gobero cemetery a population change occurred after this dry interruption but the occurrence of widespread cultural changes appears to be questionable. This episode appears to have been caused by the draining of ice-dammed lakes in North America although a low latitude origin has also been suggested.


title: African humid period

text: Cooling of the Northern Atlantic during Heinrich event 1 and the Younger Dryas associated with a weaker Atlantic meridional overturning circulation leads to atmospheric pressure anomalies that shift the Tropical Easterly Jet and precipitation belts south, making Northern Africa drier.


title: African humid period

text: Many humidity fluctuations in the early Holocene appear to be caused by the discharge of meltwater from the Laurentide Ice Sheet into the Atlantic, which weakens the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation. Some dry periods in marine cores in the Gulf of Guinea appear to coincide with events recorded in Greenland ice cores. Other variations in precipitation observed in records have been attributed to solar activity changes, water levels of Lake Turkana for example appear to reflect the 11-year solar cycle.


title: African humid period

text: In Lake Turkana, water level fluctuations took place between 8,500 and 4,500 years before present, with highstands before 8,400, around 7,000 and between 5,500 and 5,000 and lowstands around 8,000, 10,000 and 12,000 years before present. In total, five separate highstands are recorded in desert varnish around the lake. The highstands appear to be controlled by sea surface temperature patterns in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, but also by overflow of water from Lake Suguta and - intermittently - the Chew Bahir basins into Lake Turkana, which themselves received water from additional lakes. Volcanic and tectonic phenomena occur at Lake Turkana, but do not have the magnitude required to explain large changes in lake level. Water level fluctuations have also been inferred for Lake Chad on the basis of pollen data, especially towards the end of the AHP. In the Taoudenni lake fluctuations of about a quarter-millennium have been recorded and frequent droughts occurred in the Eastern Sahara.


title: African humid period

text: Other variations appear to have occurred 9,500–9,000 and 7,400–6,800 as well as 10,200, 8,200, 6,600 and 6,000 years before present; they were accompanied by decreased population density in parts of the Sahara, and other dry interludes in Egypt have been noted 9,400–9,300, 8,800–8,600, 7,100–6,900 and 6,100–5,900 years ago. The duration and severity of dry events is difficult to reconstruct and the impact of events like the Younger Dryas is heterogeneous even between neighbouring areas. During dry episodes, humans might have headed to waterbodies which still had resources, and cultural changes in the central Sahara have been linked to some dry episodes. Aside from fluctuations, a southward retreat of the humid period may have been underway after 8,000 years ago with a major drought around 7,800 years ago.


title: African humid period

text: The African humid period ended about 6,000–5,000 years ago; an ending date of 5,500 years before present is often used. After vegetation declined, the Sahara became barren and was claimed by sand. Wind erosion increased in northern Africa, and dust export from the now-desert and from dried up lakes such as the Bodélé Basin grew; Bodélé today is the largest single source of dust on Earth. The lakes dried up, mesic vegetation disappeared, and sedentary human populations were replaced by more mobile cultures. The transition from the "green Sahara" to the present-day dry Sahara is considered to be the greatest environmental transition of the Holocene in northern Africa; today almost no precipitation falls in the region. The end of the AHP but also its beginning could be considered a "climate crisis" given the strong and extended impact. Drying extended as far as the Canary Islands and southeastern Iran, and there is evidence of climate change on São Nicolau, Cape Verde.


title: African humid period

text: The Piora Oscillation cold period in the Alps coincides with the end of the AHP; the period 5,600–5,000 years ago was characterized by widespread cooling and more variable precipitation changes around the world and was possibly forced by changes in solar activity and orbital parameters. Some changes in climate possibly extended into southeastern Australia, Central America and into South America. The neoglacial began.


title: African humid period

text: A major pan-tropical environmental change took place about 4,000 years ago. This change was accompanied by the collapse of ancient civilizations, severe drought in Africa, Asia and the Middle East and the retreat of glaciers on Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya.


title: African humid period

text: Whether the drying happened everywhere at the same time and whether it took place in centuries or millennia is unclear in part due to disagreeing records and has led to controversy, and such a disagreement on timing also exists with respect to the expected vegetation changes. Marine cores usually indicate an abrupt change but not without exceptions while pollen data do not, perhaps due to regional and local differences in vegetation. Africa is a diverse landscape and groundwater and local vegetation can modify local conditions; groundwater-fed water bodies for example persisted longer than those nourished by rain. The debate on how quickly the Sahara formed goes back to 1849, when the Prussian naturalist Alexander von Humboldt suggested that only a quick drying could form the desert.


title: African humid period

text: Most recently, the idea has taken hold that the end of the African humid period occurred from north to south in a stepwise fashion. In the western Sahara and east Africa it ended within 500 years with a one-step drying 6,000 – 5,000 years ago north of the present-day monsoon belt. Farther south, precipitation decrease was more protracted and closer to the equator the AHP ended between 4,000 and 2,500 years ago. In East Africa, pronounced drying occurred between 4,500 and 3,500 years ago, centered on 4,000 years ago; Egypt during the Old Kingdom was still wetter than today. A later end in northeast Africa about 4,000 years ago may reflect the different configuration of landmasses and thus monsoon behaviour, while other research has found a westward propagating drying trend.


title: African humid period

text: Some evidence points to a two-phase change in climate with two distinct dry transitions caused by the existence of two different steps of insolation decrease at which climate changes.


title: African humid period

text: Distinct environmental changes may have occurred in Central Africa, Western Africa and East Africa. Finally, sometimes the 4.2 kiloyear event - the transition from the Northgrippian to the Meghalayan stage of the Holocene - is considered to be the true end of the AHP, especially in central Africa.


title: African humid period

text: Increased variability in precipitation may have preceded the end of the AHP; this is commonly observed before a sudden change in climate. In Gilf Kebir, between 6,300 and 5,200 years ago apparently a winter rainfall regime became established as the AHP ended. Later fluctuations in climate that produced brief humid spells also took place, such as a moister period between 500 BCE – 300 CE in Roman Northern Africa and along the Dead Sea and an earlier one 2,100 years before present in the western Sahel. By 2,700 years ago the central Sahara had become a desert and remained one until the present-day.


title: African humid period

text: After a first brief lake level drop between 5,700 and 4,700 calibrated years ago that might reflect climate variability towards the end of the African humid period, water levels in Lake Megachad decreased quickly after 5,200 years before present. It shrank to about 5% of its former size, with the deeper northern Bodele basin drying up entirely about 2,000-1,000 years ago as it was disconnected from the southern basin where its major tributary, the Chari River, enters Lake Chad. The dried out basin was now exposed to the Harmattan winds, which blow dust out of the dry lake bed, making it the single largest source of dust in the world. Dunes formed in the dried-up Sahara or began moving again after stabilizing during the AHP.


title: African humid period

text: The tropical vegetation was replaced by desert vegetation, in some places suddenly and in others more gradually. Along the Atlantic coast, the vegetation retreat was slowed by a stage of sea level rise that increased soil moisture levels, delaying the retreat by about two millennia. In Libya at Wadi Tanezzuft the end of the humid period was also delayed by leftover water in dune systems and in the Tassili mountains until 2,700 years ago, when river activity finally ceased. A brief moist pulse between 5,000 – 4,000 years ago in the Tibesti led to the development of the so-called "Lower Terrace". The Egyptian Sahara might still have been vegetated until 4,200 years ago, based on depictions of savanna environments in Fifth Dynasty tombs in Egypt.


title: African humid period

text: At Lake Yoa, which is groundwater-fed, vegetation decreased and became desert vegetation between 4,700–4,300 and 2,700 years ago, while the lake became hypersaline 4,000 years ago. However, the climate there may have been affected by the Tibesti Mountains and the end of the AHP thus delayed, and fossil groundwater left by the AHP nourishes the lake to this day. In the central Sahara, water resources in the mountains persisted longer.


title: African humid period

text: In northern East Africa, water levels dropped rapidly about 5,500 years ago while in Hoti cave in Arabia a southward retreat of the Indian Monsoon took place about 5,900 years ago. Drying is also documented from Oman, and rivers and lakes of Arabia became intermittent or entirely dry. The Blue Nile basin became less moist with a noticeable decrease of Nile discharge about 4,000 years ago. Decreased discharge of the Nile led to the cessation of sapropel deposition and turbidite activity off its delta, the abandonment of river channels in its delta and upstream and increased seawater influence in the delta.


title: African humid period

text: Some data from Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa indicate that drying there may have begun already 7,000–8,000 years ago or earlier. Reconstructions from Lake Abiyata in Ethiopia suggest that the end of the African humid period took the form of severe droughts rather than a gradual decrease of precipitation. Drying in Arabia commenced about 7,000 calibrated years ago and there are large disparities in the timing between various parts of Arabia but a tendency towards an arid climate between 6,000 and 5,000 years ago has been observed which continued until 2,700 years ago. In the Bale Mountains and the Sanetti Plateau of Ethiopia vegetation changes signalling a drier climate took place around 4,600 years ago.


title: African humid period

text: Forest cover in the area of the African Great Lakes decreased between 4,700 and 3,700 years ago, although drying at Lake Victoria had begun around 8,000 years ago, at Lake Rukwa 6,700 years ago, at Lake Tanganyika about 6,000 years ago and at Lake Edward major changes in lake chemistry consistent with drying are noted 5,200 years ago. There a minor recovery in vegetation took place between 2,500 and 2,000 years ago, followed by a much more rapid appearance of grasses accompanied also by substantial wildfire activity. This might have been the most severe drought of the Lake Edward region in the Holocene, with many lakes such as Lake George dropping significantly or drying up altogether. Other lakes such as Nakuru, Turkana, Lake Chew Bahir, Lake Abbe and Lake Zway also dropped between 5,400 and 4,200 years ago. Decreased vegetation cover in the catchment of the Blue Nile has been correlated with increased sediment transport in the river beginning 3,600 – 4,000 years ago.


title: African humid period

text: The end of the AHP at Lake Turkana occurred about 5,000-5,300 years before present, accompanied by a lake level decline and the cessation of overflow from other lakes in its area into Lake Turkana. Between 5,000 and 4,200, Lake Turkana became more saline and its water levels decreased below the level of outflow to the Nile. Towards the end of the AHP water temperatures in the lake and in other regional lakes appear to have increased, followed by a drop after its end possibly resulting from the insolation seasonality pattern that was in force at the time of the end of the AHP. The decrease of water levels in Lake Turkana also impacted the Nile and the Predynastic societies dependent on it.


title: African humid period

text: Libya and the Middle Atlas became gradually more dry, and drying in Morocco took place about 6,000 radiocarbon years ago, Drier conditions in Iberia accompanied the end of the African humid period between 6,000 and 4,000 years ago, perhaps as a consequence of increasingly frequent positive North Atlantic Oscillation episodes and the shift of the ITCZ. More complicated changes have been found for the northern margin of the Mediterranean. A 4.2 kiloyear event is recorded in dust records from the Mediterranean and might have been caused by changes in the circulation of the Atlantic Ocean.


title: African humid period

text: In Lake Bosumtwi the African humid period ended about 3,000 years ago after a brief moistening between 5,410 ± 80 years ago that ended 3,170 ± 70 years ago. This, earlier but similar changes off western Senegal and later but similar changes in the Congo Fan appear to reflect a southward shift of the precipitation zone over time. Some drying occurred simultaneously between the Sahel and the Gulf of Guinea. Some lakes in the Guineo-Congolian region dried out, while others were relatively unaffected.


title: African humid period

text: A general tendency towards a drier climate is observed in West Africa at the end of the AHP. There, dense vegetation became progressively thinner between 5,000 and 3,000 years ago, and major perturbations of the vegetation took place around 4,200 and 3,000–2,500 /2,400 calibrated years ago. A brief return of moister conditions took place 4,000 years ago while a substantial dry phase occurred between 3,500 and 1,700 years ago. Aridity became established between 5,200 and 3,600 years ago in the Sahara. In Senegal modern-type vegetation arose about 2,000 years ago.


title: African humid period

text: Farther south at the equator between 6,100 and 3,000 calibrated years before present savannah expanded at the expense of forests, with the transition possibly lasting until 2,500 calibrated years before present; a different time course estimate for the area between 4° southern and 7° northern latitude states that forest cover decreased between 4,500 and 1,300 years ago. In the Adamawa Plateau (Cameroon), the Ubangui Plateau (Central African Republic) and the Cameroon Volcanic Line montane forests disappeared at the end of the African humid period. In the Adamawa Plateau savanna has continuously expanded since 4,000 calibrated years ago. Such a change took also place in Benin and Nigeria between 4,500 and 3,400 calibrated years ago. In the Congo Basin, there were changes in the composition and density of the forests rather than their extent. Many vegetation changes in the tropical regions were probably caused by a longer dry season and perhaps a smaller latitudinal range of the ITCZ.


title: African humid period

text: In the Southern Hemisphere at Lake Malawi drying began later – 1,000 years before present – as did the African humid period which there began only about 8,000 years ago. Contrarily, increased water levels in Etosha Pan (Namibia) appear to relate to a southward movement of the ITCZ at the end of the AHP although stalagmite growth data in Dante Cave also in Namibia has been interpreted as indicating a wetter climate during the AHP.


title: African humid period

text: The end of the humid period appears to reflect the changes in insolation during the Holocene, as a progressive decrease of summer insolation caused the insolation gradients between Earth's hemispheres to decrease. However, the drying appears to have been much more abrupt than the insolation changes; it is not clear whether non-linear feedbacks led to abrupt changes in climate and it is also unclear whether the process, driven by orbital changes, was abrupt. Also, the Southern Hemisphere warmed and this resulted in a southward shift of the ITCZ; orbitally-driven insolation has increased over the Holocene in the Southern Hemisphere.


title: African humid period

text: As precipitation decreased, so did vegetation, in turn increasing the albedo and further decreasing precipitation. Furthermore, vegetation may have responded to increased variations in precipitation towards the end of the AHP although this view has been challenged. This could have directed sudden changes in precipitation, although this view has been cast in doubt by the observation that in many places the end of the African humid period was gradual rather than sudden. Plants at higher and lower latitudes might respond differently to climate change; for example more diverse plant communities might have slowed down the end of the AHP.


title: African humid period

text: The orbitally-induced changes of precipitation may have been modified by the solar cycle; specifically, solar activity maxima during the ending phase of the AHP may have offset the orbital effect and thus stabilized precipitation levels, while solar activity minima compounded the orbital effects and thus induced rapid decreases in water levels of Lake Turkana. At Lake Victoria on the other hand, solar variations appear to sometimes lead to drought and sometimes lead to wetness, probably due to changes in the ITCZ.


title: African humid period

text: Major changes in vegetation in East Africa about 2,000 years ago may have been caused by human activity, including large-scale deforestation for iron production during the Iron Age. Similar changes have been observed on the Adamawa Plateau (Cameroon) but later dating of archaeological sites has found no correlation between human expansion in Cameroon and environmental degradation. Similar rainforest degradation across Western African took place between 3,000 and 2,000 years ago and the degradation is also known as "third millennium rainforest crisis". Climate-mediated processes may have increased the impact of land use changes in East Africa. In the Sudanian and Sahelian savannah on the other hand human activity seems to have had little impact, and in Central Africa forest changes were clearly triggered by climate change with little or no evidence of anthropogenic changes. The question has led to intense debate among paleoecologists and archaeologists.


title: African humid period

text: While humans were active in Africa during the end of the African humid period, climate models analyzed by Claussen and colleagues 1999 indicate that its end does not need any human activity as an explanation although vegetation changes may have been induced by human activity. Later it was suggested that overgrazing may have triggered the end of the AHP around 5,500 years ago; human influence might explain why the Sahara became a desert without the accompanying onset of an ice age; usually the existence of a Sahara desert is associated with the expansion of high latitude glaciers. Later research has on the contrary suggested that human pastoralism may have actually delayed the end of the AHP by half a millennium as moving herds of animals driven by humans seeking good pasture conditions may lead to more balanced impacts of pastures on the vegetation and thus to greater vegetation quality. However, increased grazing has been invoked to explain the increase in dust emissions after the end of the AHP. The effects of grazing on vegetation cover are context-dependent and hard to generalize over wider regions.


title: African humid period

text: A general drying tendency is observed in the northern tropics and between 5,000 – 4,500 calibrated years ago the monsoons weakened. Perhaps as a consequence of the end of the AHP, Asian monsoon precipitation declined between 5,000 and 4,000 years ago. A drought 5,500 years ago is recorded in Mongolia and eastern America, where drought conditions around 5,500–5,000 years ago occurred in places like Florida, New Hampshire and Ontario. A drying tendency is also noted in the Caribbean and the Central Atlantic.


title: African humid period

text: Conversely, in South America there is evidence that the monsoon behaves in an opposite fashion consistent with precessional forcing; water levels in Lake Titicaca were low during the middle Holocene and began to rise again after the end of the AHP. Likewise, a trend towards increased wetness took place in the Rocky Mountains at this time although it was accompanied by a drier phase around Lake Tahoe, California and in the Western United States.


title: African humid period

text: As observed in archaeological sites, settlement activity decreased in the Sahara after the AHP. Population in Northern Africa decreased between 6,300 and 5,200 years ago over less than a millennium, beginning from the north. In inner Arabia many settlements were abandoned about 5,300 years ago. Some Neolithic people in the desert persisted for longer thanks to the exploitation of groundwater.


title: African humid period

text: Different human populations responded to the drying in diverse manners, with responses in the Western Sahara being distinct from those in the Central Sahara. In the Central Sahara, pastoralism replaced hunter-gatherer activity and a more nomadic lifestyle replaced semi-sedentary lifestyles as observed in the Acacus Mountains of Libya. Nomadic lifestyles also developed in the Eastern Sahara/Red Sea Hills in response to the end of the AHP. There was a shift in domestic animal use from cattle to sheep and goats as these are more suited in arid climates, a change reflected in rock art from which cattle disappeared at this time.


title: African humid period

text: The development of irrigation systems in Arabia may have been an adaptation to the drying tendency. The decreased availability of resources forced human populations to adapt, in general fishing and hunting declined in favour of farming and herding. However, the effects of the end of the AHP on human food production have been subject to controversy.


title: African humid period

text: The warm episode and coinciding drought may have triggered animal and human migration to less inhospitable areas and the appearance of pastoralists where previously fishery-dependent societies had existed, as happened at Lake Turkana. Humans moved to the Nile, where the society of Ancient Egypt with pharaohs and pyramids was eventually forged by these climate refugees perhaps reflecting renewed exuberance; thus the end of the AHP can be considered responsible for the birth of Ancient Egypt. Lower water levels in the Nile also aided the settlement of its valley as has been observed at Kerma. A similar process may have led to the development of the Garamantian civilization. Such human migrations towards more hospitable conditions along rivers and the development of irrigation also took place along the Euphrates, Tigris and Indus, leading to the development of the Sumerian and Harappan civilizations. Population shifts into mountain areas have also been reported for the Air Mountains, Hoggar and Tibesti. In other places, such as the Acacus Mountains populations conversely remained in oases and hunter-gatherers also stayed in the Horn of Africa.


title: African humid period

text: The Nile itself was not totally unaffected however; the 4.2 kiloyear event and the end of the AHP may be linked to the collapse of the Old Kingdom in Egypt when the Nile floods failed for three decades around 4,160 years before present and the final drying occurred. The ongoing decrease of precipitation after the end of the AHP could be the cause of the end of the Akkadian Kingdom in Mesopotamia. The end of the Garamantian civilization may also relate to climate change although other historical events were probably more important; at Tanezzuft oasis after 1,600 years ago it certainly relates to the drying trend.


title: African humid period

text: In Central Africa, forests became discontinuous and savannahs formed in some places, facilitating the movement and growth of Bantu speaking populations; these in turn may have affected the ecosystem. The vegetation changes may have aided in the establishment of agriculture. The relatively slow decline of precipitation gave humans more time to adapt to the changing climate conditions.


title: African humid period

text: Cultural changes may also have occurred as a consequence of climate change, such as changes in gender roles, the development of elites, the increased presence of human burials where formerly cattle burials predominated, as well as an increase of monumental architecture in the Sahara may have also been a response to increasingly adverse climates. A spread in cattle domestication at the time of climate change and as herders escaped the drying Sahara southwards may also relate to these events, although the details of the exact process by which cattle domestication spread are still controversial. Finally, changes in agricultural practices at the end of the AHP may be associated with the propagation of malaria and one of its causative pathogens "Plasmodium falciparum"; in turn these may correlate with the origin of human genome variants such as sickle cell disease that are linked to malaria resistance.


title: African humid period

text: In the Sahara, animal and plant populations were fragmented and restricted to certain favoured areas such as moist areas of mountain ranges; this happened for example to fish and crocodiles which only persist in isolated water bodies. Mediterranean plants such as cypresses too persist only in mountains, along with some reptiles that may have also been stranded in mountains by the drying. The whip spider "Musicodamon atlanteus" is probably also a relic of past wetter conditions. The buffalo species "Syncerus antiquus" probably went extinct from the increased competition of pastoralists triggered by the climate drying. Goat populations in Ethiopia shrunk during the droughts that followed the end of the AHP and lion habitat declined across Africa. The drying of the African Great Lakes region split gorilla populations into western and eastern populations, and a similar population split between the insect species "Chalinus albitibialis" and "Chalinus timnaensis" in Northern Africa and the Middle East may have also been caused by the expansion of deserts there. Some aquatic species disappeared from the Sahara. Giraffes, widespread in the Sahara during the AHP, may have been forced to migrate into the Sahel; this together with the separating effect of Lake Megachad may have influenced the development of giraffe subspecies. Climate change together with human impacts may have led to the extinction of a number of large mammals in Egypt. In northern Madagascar, wildlife declined after the end of the AHP even before the arrival of humans. On the other hand, the decline of tree cover may have grown the niche available to domestic animals and some drought-tolerant plant species may have expanded their range.


title: African humid period

text: The Dahomey Gap formed 4,500–3,200 years before present, correlative to the end of the AHP. The harbour porpoise declined in the Mediterranean due to a switch to oligotrophic conditions as discharge from African rivers decreased. Desert varnish formed on exposed rocks in the Sahara and at Lake Turkana in East Africa.


title: African humid period

text: The shrinkage of subtropical wetlands probably led to a drop in atmospheric methane concentrations between 5,500 and 5,000 years ago, before boreal wetlands expanded and offset the loss of subtropical wetlands, leading to a return of higher atmospheric methane concentrations. Conversely, increases in atmospheric methane concentrations, detected in Greenland ice cores about 14,700 years ago, and atmospheric carbon dioxide decreases in the early Holocene may relate to the vegetation expansion caused by the AHP. Carbon dioxide concentration then increased after about 7,000 years as the biosphere began releasing carbon in response to increasing aridity.


title: African humid period

text: A sudden increase in the amount of land-originating dust in an oceanic drill core off Cape Blanc, Mauritania, has been interpreted as reflecting the end of the AHP 5,500 years ago occurring in only a few centuries. Potentially, dried up lake basins became an important source for dust and silt-sized particles. Today, the Sahara is the single largest source of dust in the world, with far ranging effects on climate and ecosystems, such as the growth of the Amazon rainforest.


title: African humid period

text: In one climate model, the desertification of the Sahara at the end of the AHP reduces the amount of heat transported in the atmosphere and ocean towards the poles, inducing cooling of especially in winter in the Arctic and an expansion of sea ice. Reconstructed temperatures in the Arctic indeed show a cooling, although less pronounced than in the climate model. Further, this climate transition in the climate model is accompanied by increased negative Arctic Oscillation states, a weaker subpolar gyre and increased precipitation and cold air outbreaks in much of Europe; such changes have also been observed in paleoclimate data. These findings imply that the vegetation state of the Sahara influences the Northern Hemisphere climate. In turn, this high latitude cooling may have further reduced precipitation over Africa.


title: African humid period

text: Presently, the African Monsoon still influences the climate between 5° south and 25° north latitude; the latitudes around 10° north receive the bulk of their precipitation from the monsoon during summer, with smaller amounts of rainfall occurring farther north. Thus farther north deserts can be found while the moister areas are vegetated. In the Central Sahara, annual precipitation reaches no more than . Even farther north, the margin of the desert coincides with the area where the westerlies bring precipitation; they also influence southernmost Africa. Subsidence of air over parts of Northern Africa is responsible for the existence of deserts, which is further increased by the radiative cooling over the desert. Climate variability exists to this day, with the Sahel suffering from droughts in the 1970s and 1980s when precipitation decreased by 30% and the flow of the Niger River and Senegal River even more, followed by an increase of precipitation. The droughts are one of the most significant climate anomalies of the 20th century. Sea surface temperatures and feedbacks from land surface conditions modulate the strength of the monsoon and the droughts may have been triggered by sea surface temperature changes forced by anthropogenic aerosols. A large increase in dust fluxes after 1800 AD has been explained with changed agricultural practices.


title: African humid period

text: In East Africa the monsoon leads to two rain seasons in the equatorial area, the so-called "long rains" in March–May and the "short rains" in October–November when the ITCZ moves northward and southward over the region, respectively; in addition to the Indian Ocean-sourced precipitation there is also Atlantic- and Congo-sourced precipitation west of the Congo Air Boundary. In Arabia, the monsoon does not penetrate far from the Arabian Sea and some areas are under the influence of winter precipitation brought by cyclones from the Mediterranean Sea. East Africa is also under the influence of monsoon circulations.


title: African humid period

text: Some simulations of global warming and increased carbon dioxide concentrations have shown a substantial increase in precipitation in the Sahel/Sahara. This and the increased plant growth directly induced by carbon dioxide could lead to an expansion of vegetation into present-day desert, although it would be less extensive than during the mid-Holocene and perhaps accompanied by a northward shift of the desert, i.e. a drying of northernmost Africa. Such a precipitation increase may also reduce the amount of dust originating in Northern Africa, with effects on hurricane activity in the Atlantic and increased threats of hurricane strikes in the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico and the East Coast of the United States of America.


title: African humid period

text: The Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C and the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report indicate that global warming will likely result in increased precipitation across most of East Africa, parts of Central Africa and the principal wet season of West Africa, although there is significant uncertainty related to these projections especially for West Africa. In addition, the end of the 20th century drying trend may be due to global warming. On the other hand, West Africa and parts of East Africa may become drier during given seasons and months. Currently, the Sahel is becoming greener but precipitation has not fully recovered to levels reached in the mid-20th century.


title: African humid period

text: Climate models have yielded equivocal results about the effects of anthropogenic global warming on the Sahara/Sahel precipitation. Human-caused climate change occurs through different mechanisms than the natural climate change that led to the AHP, in particular through increased inter-hemispheric temperature gradients. The direct effect of heat on plants may be detrimental. Non-linear increases in vegetation cover are also possible. One study in 2003 showed that vegetation intrusions in the Sahara can occur within decades after strong rises in atmospheric carbon dioxide but would not cover more than about 45% of the Sahara. That climate study also indicated that vegetation expansion can only occur if grazing or other perturbations to vegetation growth do not hamper it. On the other hand, increased irrigation and other measures to increase vegetation growth such as the Great Green Wall could enhance it.


title: African humid period

text: Plans to geoengineer the Sahara to increase its vegetation cover and precipitation have been proposed since the 19th century. The mechanisms and consequences of the AHP are important context to evaluate such proposals and their ramifications; precipitation may increase but the consumption of carbon dioxide would be small and there could be detrimental impacts on climate and dust fluxes in the far-field. Building large solar farms in the Sahara desert would also act to decrease its albedo and may trigger similar climate responses.


title: African humid period

text: A greening of the Sahara on the one hand may allow agriculture and pastoralism to expand into hitherto unsuitable areas, but increased precipitation can also lead to increased water borne diseases and flooding. Expanded human activity resulting from a wetter climate may be vulnerable to climate reversals as demonstrated by the droughts that followed the mid-20th century wet period.


title: Kyle Newacheck

text: Kyle Newacheck (born January 23, 1984) is an American television writer, director, producer and actor. He is one of the creators of the Comedy Central show "Workaholics", in which he also co-starred. He is a producer and director on the FX comedy horror series "What We Do in the Shadows".


title: Kyle Newacheck

text: Originally from Concord, California, Newacheck graduated from The Los Angeles Film School in 2004 with a degree in editing. He worked as an editing teacher at his alma mater before forming the sketch-comedy group, Mail Order Comedy with Blake Anderson, Adam DeVine and Anders Holm in 2006.


title: Kyle Newacheck

text: Newacheck began writing, directing and editing comedy short films with Mail Order Comedy, most notably the "Crossbows and Moustaches" web series for Myspace. In 2011, Newacheck co-created "Workaholics", a Comedy Central series which aired for seven seasons, which revolves around three slackers and their drug dealer. Newacheck co-stars in the series as the drug dealer Karl Hevacheck.


title: Kyle Newacheck

text: Newacheck also directed approximately half of the "Workaholics" episodes. He has since become a television comedy director, directing episodes of "Community", "Parks and Recreation", "Happy Endings" and others. He is currently set to direct an untitled TV movie written by Greg Daniels and Robert Padnick.


title: Kyle Newacheck

text: Newacheck also collaborated with Mail Order Comedy partner Adam DeVine for his show "Adam DeVine's House Party". Newacheck is the co-creator, director, and occasional star.


title: Kyle Newacheck

text: He directed the music video for Childish Gambino's "The Worst Guys" in 2014 alongside his brother, Adam.


title: Kyle Newacheck

text: In June 2016 it was announced that Devine, Anderson, Holm and Newacheck were working on a film with Seth Rogen as producer. The film, "Game Over, Man!", debuted on Netflix in 2018.


title: Kyle Newacheck

text: Since 2019, he has been a co-executive producer and director on the FX series "What We Do in the Shadows".


title: Operation Barkhane

text: Operation Barkhane was an anti-insurgent operation that started on 1 August 2014 and formally ended on 9 November 2022. It was led by the French military against Islamist groups in Africa's Sahel region. and consisted of a roughly 3,000-strong French force, which was permanently headquartered in N'Djamena, the capital of Chad. The operation was led in co-operation with five countries, all of which are former French colonies that span the Sahel: Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger. Mali was a part of the operation until August 2022. The countries are collectively referred to as the "G5 Sahel". The operation was named after a crescent-shaped dune type that is common in the Sahara desert.


title: Operation Barkhane

text: The French military initially intervened in Mali in early 2013 as part of Operation Serval, which successfully regained the northern half of the country from Islamist groups. Operation Barkhane is intended to follow up to that success and has expanded the French military's operations over a vast area of the Sahel region. The operation has the stated aim of helping the countries' governments to maintain control of their territory and preventing the region from becoming a safe haven for Islamist terrorist groups that plan to attack France and Europe.


title: Operation Barkhane

text: On 24 May 2021, the 2021 Malian coup d'état was carried out by Vice President Assimi Goïta. French President Emmanuel Macron announced in June 2021 that the operation would soon end and French forces would pull out in a phased manner, due to France's inability to work with the national governments in the Sahel region. He however added that French forces would remain in the region as part of a larger international mission. The operation was later scheduled to end by the first quarter of 2022.


title: Operation Barkhane

text: France began withdrawing its troops from Mali on 17 February 2022. Macron announced that the base of Barkhane will shift to Niger. The military junta ruling Mali however asked France to withdraw without delay on 18 March, with Macron responding that they would withdraw over the next four to six months. French forces fully withdrew from Mali on 15 August. The French military stated that the operation was not ending, but being reformulated. However on 9 November, Macron announced the end of Operation Barkhane.


title: Operation Barkhane

text: As part of the fallout from the Libyan Civil War, instability in northern Mali caused by a Tuareg rebellion against the central Malian government was exploited by Islamist groups who gained control over the northern half of the country. In response, France launched a military operation in January 2013 to stop the Islamist offensive from toppling the Malian government and to re-capture northern Mali. The operation, codenamed Operation Serval, ended in the complete re-capture of all Islamist held territory by the operation's conclusion on 15 July 2014.


title: Operation Barkhane

text: Following the end of Operation Serval, France recognised the need to provide stability in the wider Sahel region by helping the region's various governments combat terrorism. The former French Defense Minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, said that France recognised that “there still is a major risk that jihadists develop in the area that runs from the Horn of Africa to Guinea-Bissau.” Therefore, Operation Barkhane was launched in order to assure the Sahel nations' security, and in effect France's security. The operation is the successor of Operation Serval, the French military mission in Mali, and Operation Epervier, the mission in Chad.


title: Operation Barkhane

text: The operation aims "to become the French pillar of counterterrorism in the Sahel region". According to French Defence Minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, the main objective of Operation Barkhane is counter-terrorism: "The aim is to prevent what I call the highway of all forms of traffics to become a place of permanent passage, where jihadist groups between Libya and the Atlantic Ocean can rebuild themselves, which would lead to serious consequences for our security." The concept of 'partnership' has been emphasised to explain the deployment of the French troops. The main objective of the French military intervention is the direct support of the G5 Sahel forces, through training and the introduction of new technologies and resources.


title: Operation Barkhane

text: Former French President, François Hollande, has said the Barkhane force will allow for a "rapid and efficient intervention in the event of a crisis" in the region. The operation will target Islamist extremists in Mali, Chad, and Niger, and will have a mandate to operate across borders.


title: Operation Barkhane

text: The French force was initially a 3,000-strong counter-terrorism force, with 1,000 soldiers deployed indefinitely in Mali. These soldiers were to be focused on counter-terrorism operations in northern Mali, with another 1,200 soldiers stationed in Chad, and the remaining soldiers split between a surveillance base in Niger, a bigger permanent base in Ivory Coast, and some special forces in Burkina Faso.


title: Operation Barkhane

text: According to original plans, the French forces were supplied with 20 helicopters, 200 armored vehicles, 10 transport aircraft, 6 fighter planes, and 3 drones. French Army Aviation currently have two Aérospatiale SA 330 Pumas in Chad.


title: Operation Barkhane

text: The division of labor between France and the G5 Sahel has been established by four permanent military bases: (1) headquarters and an air force base in the Chadian capital of N'Djamena (under the leadership of French Général Palasset); (2) a regional base in Gao, north Mali, with at least 1,000 men; (3) a special-forces base in Burkina Faso's capital, Ouagadougou; (4) an intelligence base in Niger's capital, Niamey, with over 300 men. The Niamey airbase is strategically important because it hosts drones in charge of gathering intelligence across the entire Sahel-Saharan region. From Niamey, France's troops are supported by two German Transall C-160s. In 2020, France stated that it will deploy 600 soldiers in addition to the existing force to fight the Islamist militants in Africa's Sahel.


title: Operation Barkhane

text: In March 2016, during the UK-France Summit in Paris, the British government announced that it would consider providing support to Operation Barkhane. British Defence Secretary Michael Fallon then announced that the UK would provide monthly strategic airlift support to French forces in Africa. In July 2018, three RAF Chinook helicopters arrived in Mali to provide logistical and troop movement support to French and other military forces operating in the area. This deployment is in addition to the 90 British troops already deployed in the region. In September 2018, "Forces.net" reported that to date the RAF Chinooks Mk5s have made 30 sorties, transporting over 700 French troops, supplies and 70 tons of equipment across Mali. In July 2020, the British Ministry of Defence announced that nearly 250 British Army troops would train and deploy to Mali to serve as a long-range reconnaissance force for United Nations forces.


title: Operation Barkhane

text: On 22 March 2018, the Ministry of Defence of Estonia announced its intention to commit up to 50 troops and 5 Pasi XA-188 armoured vehicles to Mali as part of Operation Barkhane, to be based in Gao, pending approval by the Riigikogu. The unit, named ESTPLA-26 and headed by Maj. Kristjan Karist, was detached from the C Infantry Company of the Scouts Battalion on 6 August, and arrived in Mali that same week to be stationed at the French military base in Gao. In November 2019, Estonia increased its Operation Barkhane troop deployment to 95 soldiers.


title: Operation Barkhane

text: The Swedish contribution to Barkhane via Task Force Takuba arrived in Mali during February 2021. The Swedish troop contribution to Task Force Takuba is a 150-man strong helicopter-borne rapid-response force, centered around an SOG task unit and supported by three UH-60M helicopters and one C-130, ready to be deployed if something unforeseen occurs. The task force will also be used for other operations, as for example to support other countries that exercise and conduct operations with the Malian army.


title: Operation Barkhane

text: On 14 January 2022, the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed Sweden's intention to withdraw Swedish forces from the European special forces mission in Sahel and reevaluate Swedish involvement in United Nations task force in Mali.


title: Operation Barkhane

text: Operations commenced 1 August 2014. French Forces sustained their first casualty during a battle in early November 2014, which also resulted in 24 jihadists dead. On 24 November, a French special forces soldier was killed in a Caracal helicopter crash in Burkina Faso. French forces experienced their first major success of Barkhane in December 2014 with the killing of Ahmed al-Tilemsi, the leader of the Al-Mourabitoun jihadist group, by French special forces during a raid in the deserts of northern Mali.


title: Operation Barkhane

text: From 7 to 14 April 2015, French and Nigerien forces carried out an airborne operation in the far north of Niger to search for Jihadists. As part of the operation, 90 French Army paratroopers of the 2e REP jumped near the Salvador pass. Two soldiers were injured during the jump before they were joined by a joint force of Nigerien and French soldiers from the 1st Parachute Hussar Regiment (1er RHP).


title: Operation Barkhane

text: On 26 November 2015, a French Air Parachute Commando died in hospital in France as a result of his injuries after being hit by an anti-tank mine on 13 October near Tessalit during a reconnaissance mission.


title: Operation Barkhane

text: French soldiers based in Mali as part of the Army Special Forces Command were rapidly deployed to Burkina Faso on 15 January 2016 after jihadists launched a terrorist attack on Ouagadougou which killed 30 people. In February, French forces killed a number of insurgent fighters in the north of Mali, including a number of high ranking foreign jihadists from AQIM.


title: Operation Barkhane

text: On 12 April 2016, three French soldiers were killed when their armored personnel carrier struck a land mine. The convoy of about 60 vehicles was travelling to the northern desert town of Tessalit when it hit the mine. Another French soldier was killed on 4 November 2016 following the explosion of a mine near the town of Abeïbara, which made 2016 the deadliest year up to that point for French forces participating in Barkhane.


title: Operation Barkhane

text: On 5 April 2017, master corporal Julien Barbé, was killed in action near Hombori after an explosive device blew up an armoured vehicle. He was posthumously made a knight of the Legion of Honour. Heavy fighting between French forces and Jihadist groups continued into the summer of 2017, with 8 French soldiers being wounded by a mortar attack on their base in Timbuktu on 1 June. On the night of 17 June, France suffered its tenth soldier killed during an airborne operation in the north-east of Mali.


title: Operation Barkhane

text: On 4 October 2017, French forces operating as part of Barkhane were the first to respond to the ambush of American soldiers searching for an Islamic State commander on the Niger-Mali border. French air support was requested by the Americans and two hours later Mirage fighter jets arrived from Niamey. Despite the French pilots being unable to engage ground targets due to the proximity of friendly forces, the jets deterrence was enough to end the ambush. A French special forces team were the first ground forces to reach the scene of the ambush, 3–4 hours after the firefight which resulted in the death of 4 American Green Berets.


title: Operation Barkhane

text: On 14 October 2017, an Antonov An-26 aircraft operating in support of Operation Barkhane crashed shortly before landing at Félix Houphouët Boigny International Airport, Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Four Moldovan flight crew were killed. Two Moldovan flight crew and four French Army soldiers were injured.


title: Operation Barkhane

text: A French Army convoy was attacked on 11 January 2018, by a suicide car bomb while driving between the towns of Idelimane and Menaka. Three French soldiers were wounded, one seriously, in the attack which was later claimed by Islamic State in the Greater Sahara. On 14 February, a French airstrike killed at least 10 Jihadists at the border between Algeria and Mali. Two French soldiers from the 1st Spahi Regiment were killed and the Colonel-in-chief was wounded on 21 February when the armoured vehicle they were travelling in struck a mine between the towns of Gao and Menaka.


title: Operation Barkhane

text: On 14 April 2018, JNIM militants launched an attack on a UN base in Timbuktu, wounding several French soldiers before being repelled by French, Malian and American troops. Four French soldiers were seriously wounded by a suicide car bomb attack against a joint French-Malian patrol in Gao on 1 July 2018. The attack, which heavily damaged a number of French VBCIs, also killed 4 civilians and seriously wounded 27 others.


title: Operation Barkhane

text: On 22 February 2019, French forces backed by an armed reaper drone and a helicopter attacked a JNIM convoy killing 11 militants including senior leader Yahia Abou el Hamman in the Tombouctou Region of Mali. A militant improvised explosive device struck a French armoured vehicle carrying out an anti-terrorist operation in the Mopti Region on 2 April, killing one French soldier and seriously wounding another. Two French commandos of the Commandos Marine were killed on 9 May in the North of Burkina Faso during a rescue mission which successfully rescued four hostages, included two Frenchmen, and an American and South Korean woman, who had been kidnapped by Islamists.


title: Operation Barkhane

text: In mid-June 2019, a French Army Light Aviation Gazelle helicopter crashed in the border region between Mali and Niger after being fired upon by insurgent small arms fire. The two pilots and a special forces sniper were subsequently rescued by another helicopter after destroying the damaged helicopter. The French military base in Gao was assaulted by suicide bombers on 22 July in an attack that wounded 6 Estonian soldiers and a similar number of French personnel. A French soldier was killed on 2 November 2019 when his vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive device during a patrol near Menaka in eastern Mali. French commandos launched a heli-borne raid later that month on an insurgent camp in Mali's eastern regions, which resulted in five insurgents killed and one French soldier being seriously injured.


title: Operation Barkhane

text: On 25 November 2019, 13 French soldiers were killed in northern Mali when two French helicopters, a 'Tigre' and a 'Cougar', collided in mid-air while flying to reinforce soldiers engaged in combat with insurgents. The loss of 13 soldiers was the heaviest loss of life for the French military since the 1983 Beirut barracks bombings.


title: Operation Barkhane

text: On 21 December 2019, the French military killed 40 militants in an operation in the Mopti Region of Mali. The area where the operation took place was controlled by Macina Liberation Front and it involved France's first ever use of a drone strike which accounted for 7 of the 40 killed insurgents.


title: Operation Barkhane

text: The French Defense Minister Florence Parly announced in February 2020 that France would send an additional 600 troops to the Sahel region, bolstering Operation Barkhanes' force to 5,100 troops. The first contingent of these reinforcements was 200 French Army paratroopers from the 2e REP who were transported to Niger and formed a battle group called Desert Tactical Grouping (GTD) "Altor". This battle group operated autonomously and without a base on the ground for over a month, receiving supplies only by airdrop. GTD Altor killed over a dozen insurgents and disrupted their logistics throughout their initial month-long operation.


title: Operation Barkhane

text: Two soldiers from the 1st Foreign Cavalry Regiment (1er REC) were seriously wounded when their vehicle struck an IED during operations against insurgents on 23 April 2020; one of the soldier subsequently died from his wounds. On 4 May 2020, a second soldier from the 1er REC was killed in action near Gao during a firefight with an insurgent force.


title: Operation Barkhane

text: On 3 June, French forces achieved one of their most significant successes of Operation Barkhane with the killing of Abdelmalek Droukdel, the leader of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). French and American intelligence sources had identified Droukdel's presence in a group crossing the Algerian-Malian border approximately 80 kilometres east of the town of Tessalit. French special forces subsequently conducted an air assault to intercept the group during which they shot and killed Droukdel and a number of other militants.


title: Operation Barkhane

text: A French soldier from the 1st Parachute Hussar Regiment (1er RHP) was killed during combat operations in Mali on 23 July 2020 when an improvised explosive device was triggered next to his armoured vehicle. Two further paratroopers from the 1er RHP were killed on 5 September 2020 by an improvised explosive device which struck their vehicle during an operation in the north of Mali. On 31 October 2020, French special Forces launched an operation near the town of Boulikessi near the border of Mali and Burkina Faso, 50 jihadists were killed and four were captured. On 10 November 2020, Ba Ag Moussa, Emir of Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin, along with 4 other militants were killed in an attack carried out by French Special forces. On 12 November 2020, French Mountains commandos operating under Barkhane killed 30 jihadists in Central Mali. On 30 November 2020, insurgents launched a coordinated attack on three separate French military bases in Kidal, Menaka and Gao in northern Mali using indirect rocket fire but French forces reported no casualties as a result of the attacks. A French military convoy consisting of the 1er Régiment de Chasseurs (1er RCh) was struck by two IED blasts in quick succession on 28 December 2020 during an operation in the Hombori region in central Mali, resulting in the death of three soldiers.


title: Operation Barkhane

text: On 2 January 2021, two French soldiers from the 2nd Hussar Regiment (2e RH) were killed while taking part in an intelligence gathering mission in northeastern Mali. Six French soldiers were wounded on 10 January when a suicide bomber attacked their convoy during a patrol in the central region near Gourma. French and Malian forces conducted a joint offensive operation named from 2 to 20 January in the forests surrounding the town of Boni. Over 100 jihadists were killed and 20 captured by French forces during the course of Operation "Eclipse".


title: Operation Barkhane

text: French forces carried out a controversial airstrike during the course of Operation "Eclipse" which locals claimed targeted a wedding ceremony in the village of Bounti, in the central Mopti region, on 3 January. The French military denied these claims and asserted that the strike had successfully targeted a group of jihadist fighters.


title: Operation Barkhane

text: France announced it had suspended joint military operations with Mali on 3 June, in response to the coup d'état carried out by the Malian military, resulting in the deposition of the interim president Bah Ndaw and Prime Minister Moctar Ouane in May.


title: Operation Barkhane

text: The president of France Emmanuel Macron announced on 10 June that the operation would soon be coming to an end and instead be replaced by a mission involving forces from more countries. He also added that the French forces will withdraw in a phased manner, but some will remain as part of another international mission, for which France would convince other countries to join. As to the reason for the withdrawal, he stated that France could not continue to work with the national governments in the Sahel region, as they were negotiating with terrorists.


title: Operation Barkhane

text: On 2 July, France announced that it would resume its suspended joint military operations with Mali, following discussions with the interim government of the country.


title: Operation Barkhane

text: On 9 July, Macron stated that France will withdraw between 2,500–3,000 troops from the Sahel, while retaining other troops to thwart militant operations and supporting regional forces. On 13 July, he announced that Barkhane would end in the first quarter of 2022.


title: Operation Barkhane

text: Macron on 15 September announced that Barkhane forces had killed Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi, the leader of Islamic State in the Greater Sahara. The assassination was conducted on 17 August using a drone in the Dangalous Forest of Mali near the border with Niger, according to the Chief of the Defence Staff Thierry Burkhard, after gathering information on locations where al-Sahrawi was likely to hide from captured IS-GS members. Burkhard added that al-Sahrawi was travelling on a motorcycle with another person when he was killed. A unit comprising 20 soldiers of the French Army's special forces was then sent to confirm the identities of those killed and found that the strike had killed ten IS-GS members.


title: Operation Barkhane

text: On 24 September, a French soldier was killed in an armed clash with insurgents in Mali, close to the border with Burkina Faso.


title: Operation Barkhane

text: On 11 February, the French Army anncounced that it killed 40 militants in airstrikes on a motorcycle column in the W National Park area in cooperation with the Burkinabe forces on the previous day. The militants had carried out two armed attacks in Benin on 8 and 9 February, killing nine people.


title: Operation Barkhane

text: France along with its European allies announced the beginning of the withdrawal of troops from Mali on 17 February, blaming the military junta of Mali for obstructions in carrying out their military operations. France stated that the withdrawal was meant for its soldiers part of both Operation Barkhane and Takuba Task Force. Macron stated that the base of the operation would shift from Mali to Niger. France began redeploying its forces to other countries of the Sahel like Chad.


title: Operation Barkhane

text: The French military stated on 7 March 2022 that its forces had killed al-Qaeda commander Yahia Djouadi, alias "Abu Ammar al-Jazairi", overnight between 25–26 February. Djouadi was a former emir of the group in Libya before fleeing to Mali in 2019. He helped organize the group, in addition to managing its supplies, logistics and finances in the Tombouctou Region.


title: Operation Barkhane

text: On 18 March, the military government of Mali asked France to withdraw its troops "without delay". President Macron however responded that about 5,000 French troops will leave Mali in an "orderly fashion" over the next four to six months, in order to provide protection for the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) and forces of other nations stationed in Mali.


title: Operation Barkhane

text: France announced on 15 June that it had captured Oumeya Ould Albakaye, a senior ISGS leader in Mali overnight between 11-12 June. On the following day, it stated that nearly 40 militants were killed in drone strikes on a column of motorcycles near Niger's border with Burkina Faso on 14 June.


title: Operation Barkhane

text: French forces completed their withdrawal from Mali on 15 August. The French military stated that 3,000 troops will remain in the Sahel region as part of Operation Barkhane and added that it was not ending, but being reformulated. However on November 9, Macron announced the end of Operation Barkhane and stated that some French troops will remain in the region under new arrangements.


title: Operation Barkhane

text: Prior to the beginning of Operation Barkhane, 10 French troops had been killed in Mali as part of Operation Serval. Since the launch of Operation Barkhane in August 2014, the French Ministère des Armées listed 38 servicemen were reported killed in Mali, 2 in Burkina Faso and one in Chad. The vast distances of Operation Barkhane force's area of operations across the Sahel pose a significant challenge in dealing with French casualties, with wounded troops being possibly up to from advanced medical aid. To overcome these challenges, the French military created helicopter-mobile medical teams which can rapidly carry out MEDEVAC missions and transport casualties to more advanced medical care. Between 2013 and 2016, it was reported that French forces sustained 1,272 casualties which required MEDEVAC; of these casualties, 18.2% were wounded in action, 27.4% suffered trauma injuries and 46.6% were suffering from disease or sickness.


title: Operation Barkhane

text: After the first year of operations, the French Army claimed that approximately 125 insurgents had been neutralized by French forces. In late 2015, French army representatives indicated that over 150 ammunition and explosive depositories had been discovered and 25 vehicles and 80 electronic devices (GPS, computers, satellite phones and radio stations) had been destroyed. This represented 20 tons of ammunition, including 2,000 shells, 680 grenades, guided missiles, 25 IEDs and mines, 210 detonators, 30 mortars, machine guns and rocket launchers. The army also seized of various drugs. French forces continued to inflict significant casualties in 2016, with nearly 150 insurgents killed or captured in that year. By July 2017, the French Forces estimated that over 400 insurgents had been killed since the start of Operation Barkhane.


title: Operation Barkhane

text: In February 2018, the French Defense Minister, Florence Parly, indicated that 450 jihadists have been neutralized, amongst which 120 have been killed and 150 held as prisoners by Malian authorities. In July 2018, General Bruno Guibert, head of the Barkhane force, confirmed that 120 terrorists had been killed since the beginning of the year. In February 2019, Parly announced that over 600 jihadists had been "neutralized" since the beginning of the operation in 2014.


title: Operation Barkhane

text: Since 2013 and the beginning of the Operation Serval, replaced by Operation Barkhane in 2014, opinions in Mali have been divided as to the legitimacy of the French intervention. According to Mission head for Peace in Mali for the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute Aurélien Tobie, "Between 2013 and 2015, we quickly realised, after the peace agreements in Ouagadougou and Algiers for Mali that the Malian opinion towards the French presence was changing. People were supporting the Serval Operation, but did not understand why the French presence was being prolonged with the Barkhane Operation".


title: Operation Barkhane

text: In 2017, the study "Mali-Meter", conducted by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Mali, polled the level of satisfaction with Operation Barkhane amongst the Malian population. Less than half of the respondents were satisfied with the French intervention. The study also showed geographical disparities in approbation of Operation Barkhane.


title: Operation Barkhane

text: According to Aurélien Tobie, the differences of opinion between the North and the South of the country can be explained by the difference in proximity of the population with the operations: "People in contact with the forces of Barkhane in the North of the country approve of it much more because they see changes in their daily lives. Conversely, people interviewed in Southern Mali, who are generally higher educated but also further away from the conflict zone, are much more critical of the French presence".


title: Operation Barkhane

text: Demonstrations against the French presence have been taking place since 2013 in Mali, on a regular basis. Patriotic groups have been emerging. These groups strive for an end of the French presence and some call for a Russian intervention.


title: Operation Barkhane

text: In June 2019, a former Malian minister anonymously declared to French newspaper "Libération" that anti-French sentiment is at its peak in Mali: "Conspiracy theories are flourishing everywhere. Soon, France will be accused of being responsible for the floods. The inertia of our own leaders is the primary cause of the problem".


title: Operation Barkhane

text: Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita also strongly criticised anti-French demonstrations. He stated in December 2019 that: "the foreign forces in our country are our allies in this tragic war imposed on us. We will not win this war by misunderstanding who our true enemy is and by falling into the trap of the terrorist groups".


title: Operation Barkhane

text: French President Emmanuel Macron has denounced a "disinformation campaign" led by a rival power, implying it was Russia, although he did not explicitly name it.


title: Operation Barkhane

text: Much of the criticism of the French intervention revolves around the concept of Françafrique, a pejorative term used to describe the alleged neocolonial practices of France in its former African colonies.


title: Wout van Aert

text: Wout van Aert (born 15 September 1994) is a Belgian professional road and cyclo-cross racer who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam . He won the men's elite race at the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships in 2016, 2017 and 2018. He joined in March 2019, on a three-year deal after terminating his contract with in 2018.


title: Wout van Aert

text: Van Aert was born in Herentals, Flanders, into a family not involved in bike racing. One of his father's cousins is Dutch former professional cyclist Jos van Aert. He started his career in cyclo-cross where he became World champion (2016, 2017, 2018) and Belgian champion (2016, 2017, 2018, 2021, 2022).


title: Wout van Aert

text: He rode the 2018 Strade Bianche, held partly on gravel roads in torrential rain. He broke away with Romain Bardet () and the pair led the race for much of the final before Tiesj Benoot () attacked from a chasing group to catch and then drop them in the final sector of dirt roads. Benoot soloed to victory by 39 seconds ahead of Bardet, who dropped van Aert in the final kilometre; van Aert ultimately completed the podium a further 19 seconds in arrears, despite having to remount his bicycle after falling on the final climb in Siena.


title: Wout van Aert

text: Van Aert rode with the team during road races in 2018. Over the year, he expressed dissatisfaction with the news that the team was set to merge with for 2019. Having already signed a contract to ride with from 2020 onwards, he terminated his contract with in September 2018. Were he to join another team for 2019, Sniper Cycling – the owners of the team – were said to be demanding €500,000 in compensation. were reported to be interested in signing van Aert a year earlier than originally agreed, and confirmation of the transfer was announced in December 2018, with van Aert joining the team from 1 March 2019.


title: Wout van Aert

text: In June 2019, van Aert won two stages and the green jersey in the Critérium du Dauphiné, became national time trial champion, and won the bronze medal in the road race at the national championship. In July 2019, he was named in the startlist for the Tour de France. On 15 July, van Aert won Stage 10 from Saint-Flour to Albi, in a sprint finish ahead of Elia Viviani and Caleb Ewan. On 19 July, he had a crash during the individual time trial stage in Pau, and was forced to abandon the race due to his injuries. It was not known at the time whether he would recover for the cyclocross season or even the classics at the start of the 2020 road cycling season.


title: Wout van Aert

text: Van Aert later told newspaper "Het Laatste Nieuws" that the crash was so severe that it could have ended his career, worsened by a mistake during his surgery, when doctors did not properly work on one of his tendons. In November 2019, van Aert won the Flandrien of the Year award.


title: Wout van Aert

text: On 1 August 2020, van Aert won the first rescheduled 2020 UCI World Tour race to be held following the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 Strade Bianche after attacking solo with around 13 kilometres remaining. The following week, van Aert won the rescheduled 2020 Milan–San Remo after outsprinting French rider Julian Alaphilippe, the defending champion, of , in a two-up sprint, after the duo had broken away from the peloton on the descent of the Poggio. On 2 September 2020, he won the 5th stage of the Tour de France from Gap to Privas, in a light uphill sprint. He also won the sprint in the 7th stage Millau to Lavaur. At the 2020 World Championships in Imola van Aert won the silver medal in both the individual time trial and in the road race.


title: Wout van Aert

text: Van Aert started the 2021 road season on 6 March at the Strade Bianche and came in fourth place. He then rode the Tirreno-Adriatico with Overall aspirations, winning the opening stage in a bunch sprint ahead of elite sprinters like Caleb Ewan and Elia Viviani. After consistent and strong performances in the rest of the race, including a victory in the last stage, a 10.1 kilometre time trial, he managed to win the points classification and finish second in the general classification behind the 2020 Tour champion Tadej Pogačar. After Tirreno-Adriatico van Aert became third in Milan–San Remo behind Jasper Stuyven and Caleb Ewan. On 28 March van Aert sprinted to victory in Gent-Wevelgem after making the winning selection during the early stages of the race. On 18 April van Aert won the Amstel Gold Race after a thrilling sprint which was decided by a photofinish before Tom Pidcock.


title: Wout van Aert

text: On 7 July van Aert won Stage 11 of the 2021 Tour de France by attacking on the last climb of Mount Ventoux over 32 kilometres from the finish. Afterwards van Aert said this victory on such an iconic mountain stage was the biggest win of his career. On 17 July 2021 Wout Van Aert won Stage 20, which was a 30.8 km individual time trial, in the time of 0h 35’ 53" [50.3 km/h]. On 18 July 2021 Wout van Aert won Stage 21 winning the 108.4 km final stage of the 2021 Tour de France to take his third stage win in the 108th Tour de France race, crossing the finish line on the Champs-Élysées beating Jasper Philipsen to second place and Mark Cavendish to third place. After the race, van Aert said that "I guess I gave myself a problem because I have to catch a flight tonight (to the Olympics) and all these interviews will take a while... (but) to win three stages like this is priceless". He was the first rider to win a mountain stage, a time trial and a bunch sprint at the same Tour since Bernard Hinault in 1979.


title: Wout van Aert

text: In the Olympic road race he finished 1' 07" behind winner Richard Carapaz but won the sprint in the chasing group, earning the silver medal.


title: Wout van Aert

text: Van Aert started the 2022 road season with a win in the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad after a 13 kilometre solo attack. He then won the time trial in Paris-Nice as well as the points classification. In the first monument of the year, Milan - San Remo, van Aert came 8th. He then won the E3 Saxo Bank Classic in an uncontested sprint with teammate Christophe Laporte with whom they attacked together on the Paterberg with 40 kilometres to Harelbeke and finished the race over one and a half minute ahead of the next group. A couple of days before the Tour of Flanders van Aert tested positive for COVID-19 and he had to forsake participation in the Tour of Flanders and the Amstel Gold Race. After two weeks without racing, van Aert returned with a second place in Paris-Roubaix. A week later, he came third on his debut in the Ardennes monument Liège–Bastogne–Liège.


title: Wout van Aert

text: Van Aert started off the 2022 Tour de France with three second place finishes, including the opening stage time trial, and stage 2 and 3 sprints. His results were good enough to take over the yellow and green jerseys after stage 2. Stage 4 was expected to be another bunch sprint finish, but with 10 kilometres to go Team Jumbo-Visma orchestrated an attack up the final climb of the day, the 900-metre ascent up Cote du Cap Blanc-Nez. At the top of the climb, Van Aert broke free and rode solo to the finish, flapping his arms like he was flying as he crossed the finish line. Adam Blythe of Eurosport commented that he had never seen an attack like this before, and Phil Liggett, an analyst for the American TV audience on NBC, said that this attack reminded him of Eddy Merckx. By this point, his lead in the points competition was substantial. Stage 5 on the cobbles was a near disaster for the team, but thanks in part to Van Aert's strong riding near the end of the stage the losses were limited. He lost the jersey on stage 6, after forcing the successful breakaway, but eventually he was caught and dropped. He rode much of the stage at the front of a three rider breakaway and eventually on his own being awarded the red number on stage 7 for his efforts. Stage 8 looked to be a day for a breakaway to win, but Team Jumbo-Visma kept it in check and ran the breakaway down at the foot of the final climb. The stage ended in an uphill bunch sprint with Michael Matthews and yellow jersey holder Tadej Pogačar leading it out. Wout van Aert at first appeared blocked out, but when a gap appeared he pounced—no one could match his speed. This was his second win in this tour, and his 8th individual stage win overall. By the end of the second week his lead in the green jersey competition was all but insurmountable, with Van Aert having more than double the points of 2nd place Pogačar. On stage 18, which ended with a mountaintop finish on Hautacam, Van Aert attacked at kilometre zero. He was brought back, but then attacked again in the following breakaways and essentially stayed away all day. On the final climb he broke the final two breakaway riders in Thibault Pinot and Dani Martínez. The only two riders to finish ahead of him were Pogačar and Vingegaard, who all but secured the yellow jersey, meaning as long as both Van Aert and Vingegaard arrived in Paris in the same position Team Jumbo-Visma would be the first team to claim both the yellow and green jerseys since 1997. He won the final ITT in stage 20, and was then named Most Combative Rider of the entire tour. On the final day in Paris he crossed the finish line about a minute after the sprinters together with his surviving teammates.


title: Devadarshini

text: Devadarshini is an Indian actress who predominantly appears in Tamil films, in addition to few Telugu films and television series. She began her career as a television anchor before venturing into acting, first in television and then in films. She mainly appears in supporting roles and often performs comic roles.


title: Devadarshini

text: Devadarshini was born in Chennai to a Telugu-speaking family. She studied commerce in college and later gained a master's degree in Applied Psychology.


title: Devadarshini

text: While still in college, she began anchoring television shows. She was then offered an opportunity to act in the Doordarshan serial "Kanavugal Ilavasam", which led to her landing a role in the mystery series "Marmadesam" by Naga. She was introduced in "Ramany vs Ramany Part 02", which was also directed by Naga. Devadarshini became part of the series' second installment, "Vidathu Karuppu", which she considers a "big turning point" in her life as it established her in the industry.


title: Devadarshini

text: She won her the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Comedian for "Parthiban Kanavu" (2003). She played the lead role in "Sakthi Pirakuthu" (2010), a film made by an NGO. After "" (2011), she was continuously doing humorous characters.


title: Devadarshini

text: In 2002, Devadarshini married Chetan, a television actor. They first worked together on "Marmadesam". Her daughter Niyati made her debut in "96" portraying the younger version of her mother's character.


title: The Land of Stories

text: The Land of Stories is a series of children's fiction, adventure and fantasy books written by American author, actor and singer Chris Colfer. The first book, "The Wishing Spell", was released on July 17, 2012. The sixth book was published in July 2017. During a live video chat, Colfer revealed plans for a prequel series, which have now been published. The books are described by Colfer as a "modern-day fairy tale", following twins Alex and Conner Bailey as they fall from the real world into a world full of fairy tales they have only ever read about before and discovering there is more to this world than meets the eye.


title: The Land of Stories

text: A year and 9 months have gone by since twins Alex and Conner Bailey lost their father in a car accident. Their mother is trying to balance her job and her family. On Alex and Conner's twelfth birthday, their grandmother gives them an old fairy tale book from her childhood. Alex realizes that the book hums, glows, and eventually sucks items into its pages. Against Conner's advice to throw the book away, Alex keeps the book and eventually reaches into it, after experimenting by throwing pencils and books inside. Conner barges in to stop Alex from going into the book, but doing so, startling Alex, and therefore making her fall into the book. Conner jumps in to help Alex. They find out the book is a portal to the fairy-tale world. There, they meet Froggy, a man turned into a frog. Froggy gives them a journal that tells of the Wishing Spell, and how to find it. The Wishing Spell is a spell that can grant whatever wish the person wants if the person has a specific eight items. Hoping to return to the real world, Alex and Conner set off to find the Wishing Spell items. They later meet another person who was later identified as the Huntsman's daughter, the Huntress. Alex and Conner realize that the Huntress is working for the Evil Queen to get the Wishing Spell as well. They find out that the Wishing Spell can only be used twice, and the man who wrote the journal already used it. The Evil Queen gets this message from her magic mirror as well, and begins a desperate race to create the Wishing Spell. While they are collecting the ingredients for the Wishing spell, Alex and Conner come across many tales that their father had once told them. After a while, they face the conclusion that their father came from the fairy-tale world.


title: The Land of Stories

text: Finally, when Alex and Conner get all the items for the Wishing Spell, the Evil Queen kidnaps them, takes the items, and goes to her hiding place, North of the Sleeping Kingdom. There, Conner tries to prevent the Evil Queen from using the Wishing Spell by smashing the fairy tear bottle, one of the items needed in the Wishing Spell. The Evil Queen tells her story: When she was little, she was named Evly, and she was a kind and caring girl. She fell in love with a young boy named Mira, but the Enchantress captured her and stopped her from meeting him. Evly tried to send secret messages to Mira, but the Enchantress found out and imprisoned Mira in a mirror. Evly later killed the Enchantress, but she couldn't do anything to bring Mira back until she found out about the Wishing Spell. Due to the story, Alex sheds a few tears. The Evil Queen gets one of Alex's tears, puts it with the items of the Wishing Spell, and the Wishing Spell activates. Mira is freed from the magic mirror, but he is nearly dead. The rescue team, led by Froggy, arrives. Mira dies in Evly's arms, and they are both swallowed up by the Queen's magic mirror when it falls. In the fighting that follows, the Huntsman and his daughter are killed, and Alex and Conner are rescued. Froggy is found to be the long-lost Prince Charlie from the Charming Kingdom, and Alex and Conner learn that their grandmother is the Fairy Godmother, who is capable of making portals between the Otherworld and the fairy-tale world. The journal written by the man who had completed the Wishing Spell years before was written by their father: Therefore, Alex and Conner are part fairy. Alex and Conner return to the real world.


title: The Land of Stories

text: Alex heads home after attending school and finds her brother Conner, who is worried because their mother has yet to come home from work. He also found a romantic note to their mother from a surgeon she worked with named Dr. Bob, who brought them a puppy. When Charlotte comes home, Alex and Conner ask if Charlotte has a boyfriend. Their mother tells them that it's true. Later on, Bob goes to see the twins and tells them about his plan to propose to their mother. He shows them the ring, which has two large diamonds on it, one pink and one blue to represent the twins. When Bob asks the twins for permission about the proposal, Conner and Alex decide that this would make both Bob and their mom happy, so they agree.


title: The Land of Stories

text: All three then decided to surprise Charlotte with a special dinner at the Bailey house the next Thursday at six. Alex returns home as quickly as she can from a course she was taking at a community college, and Bob tells the people he works with at the hospital to keep Charlotte busy so she won't come home early. The twins' mother, Charlotte Bailey, doesn't show up on time, but another nurse at the hospital says that she had left two hours ago. They then hear a mysterious knock at the door and a bunch of fairy tale soldiers from the Charming Kingdom barge in. Bob was originally shocked, then doubtful, but he later accepts that the Fairy Tale world exists. The twins' grandmother, the Fairy Godmother, enters and explains that their mother was kidnapped. While their grandmother attends to her own business, Xanthous (a member of the Fairy Council) and Sir Lampton (their father's old friend) watch over them until Mother Goose, their grandma's closest friend takes over babysitting the twins. Later, Alex gives Mother Goose alcohol until she becomes drunk, and Alex asks her for information, which she unknowingly gives.


title: The Land of Stories

text: Alex discovers that her mother was captured by Ezmia, the "Enchantress", who cursed Sleeping Beauty as a young baby, and that the Sleeping Kingdom was in ruin. Since she couldn't get to the Land of Stories through the book, she sneaks out of the house and bikes to her grandmother's house, hoping to find a way to the Land of Stories. The next day, she almost falls off of a bridge. Unexpectedly, Conner saves her and admits that he had followed her. They eventually go to their grandmother's house, which had a glowing painting in it. Alex knows that this is a portal to the fairy-tale world. Suddenly, Alex and Conner find themselves in The Land of Stories. They eventually find Froggy, who is once again in frog form as a disguise, after being turned back into a human at the end of the first book. All three travel to the Red Riding Hood Kingdom, where the Enchantress seemed to be destroying symbolic historic sights. Alex and Conner then attend a meeting only for the kings and queens by persuading Red to wear a dress that they could hide under. At the meeting, the Enchantress captures Alex and Conner's grandmother, revealing that she had captured 'Alex', but instead got Charlotte, their mother, who pretended to be Alex. At Red's castle, Conner learns of something called the Wand of Wonderment, which makes the holder invincible. To create it, one must find the six most valuable things of the six most hated people in the world. To help find all the items, Red asks the villagers to all pitch in to make a flying ship out of all her baskets.


title: The Land of Stories

text: When the ship is completed, Alex, Conner, Red, Froggy, Goldilocks, and Jack fly the ship across The Land of Stories. They obtain the ice scepter of The Snow Queen, the wedding ring of Cinderella's stepmother, the giant's harp, the glass from the Evil Queen's mirror, and the jewels of the Sea Witch. However, they are unclear on what the Enchantress's most prized possession is. After landing in the Troll and Goblin territory, they discover that Trollbella, a female troll that likes Conner, is now queen and that Bob traveled to the Land of Stories as well. They meet the ghost of Old Queen Beauty in the Eastern Kingdom, who says that the Enchantress' most prized possession is her pride.


title: The Land of Stories

text: The Enchantress uses her vines to drag Conner, Red, Froggy, Goldilocks, and Jack to the coliseum. Alex tries to defeat Ezmia by subtly stealing her pride, but she is blasted off of the coliseum. Because she was holding the Wand of Wonderment, she is saved from death. However, when she reaches the ground, she faints. Alex then has a dream that she was talking to Alice from Alice in Wonderland, Lucy from Narnia, Dorothy Gale from Oz, and Wendy Darling from Neverland, who advise her on the situation. Alex wakes up and goes back up the coliseum using a flying horse. When she arrives, she drops the Wand in front of Ezmia. Ezmia tries to kill Alex with the Wand after Alex stripped her of her powers (until Ezmia got hold of the Wand of Wonderment) but Rumpelstiltskin jumps in front of the blast to save Alex out of guilt for what he has tried to do for Ezmia. Conner destroys the Wand, so all the magic is taken from Ezmia's body and she dies.