Nomadic conflict, also called farmer–herder conflict, is a type of environmental conflict 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.
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Climate change and land degradation
Desertification in the Sahel, where much of the present-day conflicts between herders and farmers takes place, is expanding southward by about 1400 square miles a year. Climate change has apparently exacerbated land degradation, which leads to more competition over grazing areas.[
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History
Malti Malik summarises relationships and inter-dependencies between sheep-herders and Sedentism farmers in Mari, a city-state on the Euphrates (in present-day Syria) which flourished between 2900 and 1759 BCE. The "nomadic groups included the Akkadian Empire, Amorites, Assyrian people and Aramaeans. ... Some of them gained much power and succeeded in establishing their own rule. For example, the kings of Mari were Amorites." Interactions included trade and employment (as harvest workers or mercenary) as well as "robbing and plundering".[
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Similarly, in the 13th century CE nomadic Mongols subjugated many of the agriculture-based states of Eurasia and founded the Mongol Empire.
Examples
Cameroon
More than 30,000 people in northern Cameroon fled to Chad after ethnic clashes over Water conflict between Musgum people fishermen and ethnic Chadian Arabic 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 people, Kara people and Aiki language, 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 people, Furiiru people and Banyindu have attacked and stolen cattle from the Banyamulenge.
Kenya
Nigeria
Sudan and South Sudan
Nomadic conflict in Sudan has been a part of the Second Sudanese Civil War, the War in Darfur and the Sudanese conflict in South Kordofan and Blue Nile and has been a feature in ethnic violence in South Sudan.
