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One of the worst famines in the region's recorded history occurred in the 18th century.

According to John Iliffe, " The worst crises were in the 1680s, when famine extended from the Senegambian coast to the Upper Nile and ' many sold themselves for slaves, only to get a sustenance ', and especially in 1738 – 56, when West Africa's greatest recorded subsistence crisis, due to drought and locusts, reportedly killed half the population of Timbuktu.