Nomadic conflict, also called farmer–herder conflict, is found in rural areas where farming and herding communities overlap and has been used to refer to fighting among herding communities or fighting between herding and farming communities. This is sometimes referred to as conflict involving “pastoralists” or “nomadic” people and “agriculturalists” or “settled” people. The conflicts usually arise from destruction of crops by livestock and is exacerbated during times when water and lands to graze are scarce.
Background
There are several hundred million pastoralists worldwide and Africa contains about 268 million pastoralists, over a quarter of its population, who live on about 43 percent of the continent’s land mass.
Commercial displacement
Displacement of local communities to make way for commercial farms or mining activities has put pressure on grazing areas, exacerbating conflict.
Climate change and land degradation
Desertification
Desertification is a type of land degradation in drylands in which biological productivity is lost due to natural processes or induced by human activities whereby fertile areas become increasingly arid. It is the spread of arid areas caused by ...
means the
Sahel
The Sahel (; ar, ساحل ' , "coast, shore") is a region in North Africa. It is defined as the ecoclimatic and biogeographic realm of transition between the Sahara to the north and the Sudanian savanna to the south. Having a hot semi-arid c ...
, where much of the conflict between herders and farmers take place, is expanding southward by about 1400 square miles a year.
Climate change
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...
has been attributed to exacerbate land degradation, which leads to more competition over grazing areas.
Examples
Cameroon
More than 30,000 people in northern Cameroon fled to Chad after ethnic clashes over access to water between Musgum fishermen and ethnic Arab Choa herders in December 2021.
Central African Republic
In the Central African Republic Civil War, a large portion of the fighting was between rebel groups known as ex- Séléka and rebel groups known as anti-balaka. While the ex-Séléka consisted of those who were largely Muslim and the anti-balaka consisted of those who were largely Christian and animist, an added dimension of the conflict was that ex-Séléka consisted of those from nomadic groups, such as the Fulani, Gula and Runga, and the anti-balaka consisted of those from agriculturalist groups.
Congo, Democratic Republic of
Ethnic conflict in Kivu has often involved the Congolese Tutsis known as Banyamulenge, a cattle herding group that largely migrated from Rwanda in the 19th century and are often derided as outsiders. They are pitted against other ethnic groups who consider themselves indigenous. Militias drawn from the Bembe,
Bafuliru The Bafuliiru people (also known as the Fuliiru, Bafuliru, Kifuliru, Kifuliiru, Bafuliru, Bafuliiru and Bafuliru) are a Bantu ethnic group, a sub-group of the Kivu."Fuliiru." ''Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Africa and the Middle East, Volume 1'' (J ...
and Banyindu have attacked and stolen cattle from the Banyamulenge.
Kenya
Nigeria
Conflict in the Middle Belt in Nigeria between largely Fulani pastoralists and farming communities has arguably killed more people than the more publicized Boko Haram insurgency.
ethnic violence in South Sudan
Ethnic violence in South Sudan has a long history among South Sudan's varied ethnic groups. South Sudan has 64 tribes with the largest being the Dinkas, who constitute about 35% of the populationNomadsSocial conflict