REVIEW
Public Health Rev.
Exploring Associations Between WaSH-Related Health Outcomes and Terrorist Activities in the Sahel: A Scoping Review
1. ETH Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland
2. Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Allschwil, Switzerland
3. University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland, 4001
4. McGill University, Montreal, Canada, Quebec, H3A 0G4
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Abstract
Objectives: The G5 Sahel countries , have faced political instability and terrorist activities for over a decade. With the regional lack of water, sanitation and hygiene (WaSH), there is an increased risk of adverse health outcomes. This scoping review aims to document WaSH-related health outcomes associated with terrorist activities, identify gaps in the humanitarian and political response and propose actionable recommendations to address them. Methods: We followed the PRISMA standards, including literature from PubMed and Web of Science.Country-specific timeframes for terrorist activities were used. Results: Data was extracted from 54 out of 2,320 publications on December 22, 2023. While malnutrition and diarrheal diseases were frequently reported as health outcomes - consistent with inadequate WaSH services - the lack of studies directly linking these outcomes to terrorist activities is notable. Only one article explicitly established a direct link between health outcomes and terrorist activities. Conclusions: The scarcity of studies directly linking terrorist activities to health outcomes reveals a significant research gap and highlight the need for more focused investigations into the health impacts of political violence in the Sahel region.
Summary
Keywords
WASH, conflict, health outcomes, G5 Sahel, WaSH intervenƟons
Received
07 March 2025
Accepted
15 September 2025
Copyright
© 2025 Beck, Nia Owen, Scott, Winkler and Galli. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Anaïs Galli, anais.galli@swisstph.ch
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