La rébellion peule et la « guerre pour la terre »

Abstract

This article aims to disentangle the causes of conflict over access to agro-pastoral resources in the under-administered cross-border plains of Mali’s fifth region and the provinces of Soum and Oudalan in northern Burkina Faso. In a context of land saturation, the worsening conflicts between transhumant herders and landowners have led to violent protests against unequal access rights to agro-pastoral resources within Fulani society. The sudden weakening of the state and the jihadist insurgency have provided an opportunity for the dominated of Fulani extraction to arm themselves and rebel against their own elites. This has led to a form of “government through violence” in which the stakes seem to be the control of arable land, grazing land, and water resources.

Keywords

• conflicts
• land saturation
• Fulani
• access rights
• agro-pastoral resources