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In the midst of growing resource scarcities many have died and tens to thousands have been displaced due to fighting triggered by a drowning cow.
Two struggling communities from Logone-Birni engaged last August in a fierce and violent brawl The final battleIt lasted nine days. The Chao Arab herders, Mousgoum farmers, and fishermen from the Far North region Cameroon grabbed arms. By the time the arms were put down, 32 people had died, 19 villages had burned down, and 11,000 had fled to Chad.
What was the cause of the conflict? One day, a Chao Arab herder’s animal fell into a pond made by a Mousgoum villager. It drowned.
The fighting between neighbours erupted again in December, a few months later. The conflict was sparked again by cattle belonging to a Choa Arab herder, who crossed the Mousgoum farmlands and destroyed some crops. In the two weeks of clashes following, at least 74 people were killed. 44 people were killed111 people were injured and 112 villages destroyed. Over 85,000 refugees fled Chad to escape the violence, while 15,000 people were internally displaced.
Two fights turned the tables on the peaceful, once neighbourly, relationship of tens and thousands of people.
“The entire village was destroyed,” said Aboukar Dalaye (52 years old), Choa-Arab chief of Logone-Birni. “Now I live with my family in a tent… Our Mousgoum brothers don’t want to see their cattle go anywhere near any of their farms, fishponds, or villages.”
Oumar Bara, 70 years old, is a Mousgoum leader from Gawa Tata village. He said that herders were trespassing on fishponds that we had built. “When we tell them they shouldn’t trespass, the argue that they must also eat – that their cattle must be grazed in the surrounding pasture… Now, I am broke. The Choa-Arabs took dozens of my cattle and destroyed my fishing tools as well as my millet yields.
A fight to preserve resources
The fertile land left by the agro-industrial revolution is where Choa-Arab, Mousgoum villages are located in northern Cameroon. Regressing waters of Lake Chad. This area is rich in biodiversity and has attracted numerous communities from the local area as well groups from further afield in West Africa.
Many of these communities have coexisted peacefully over the generations. But, the rising scarcity for resources has made it difficult for them to co-exist peacefully and cooperatively. Climate breakdownTensions have been on the rise. The Sahel’s temperatures are rising 1.5 times faster that the global average. 80% of the land is now in danger. The drought has caused severe water shortages. Mousgoum villagers built ponds to keep water and fish.
As life becomes more difficult and the climate is more unpredictable, neighboring groups have had to fight for the same insufficient goods, sometimes violently. Armel Sambo is a professor of history from the University of Maroua in Far North Region. He says this struggle has become increasingly ethnic.
“In the face a scarcity of natural resources – fertile lands, fish, pastures and water – communities still tends on identity and ethnicity, to exclude each other,” he said. “The Mousgoums constructed many water catchment pools for the Choa-Arabs, who are always in search of water and pasture. They will not listen to the complaints made by those they consider invaders and newcomers.
These intercommunal frustrations are easy to build up in difficult living situations. Fighting can quickly spread if these frustrations are not contained.
Alliance Abelegue Fidele, a researcher at the think-tank and humanitarian worker, said that during the conflict, when a group Mousgoum fighters arrived in a Choa Arab village, they would attack everyone, assuming all of them were Choa-Arabs. Thinking AfricaThe company is based in the region. “Sometimes, those who intermarried are attacked both sides.”
Paul Atanga Nji (Cameroon’s Interior Minister) visited the region during the December conflict and encouraged the residents not to resort to violence, but to use the official channels to address their grievances. He stated that it was unacceptable to use the law to kill, loot and commit vandalism. “If a traditional leader is unable to control his subjects, he does not deserve to be a traditional ruler.”
Both local leaders and analysts in Mousgoum suggest that it is understandable why some communities don’t trust the state institutions.
“Only one of the ten councils in Chari Division is headed by a Mousgoum, while the rest are led the Choa-Arabs,” Bara, the Mousgoum village chief, says. “Most chiefdoms are also led by Choa-Arabs. They have the right to do what they want because they control us politically and economically. The Choa Arabs bribe local officials who consider us the aggressor every time a conflict breaks out.
Dalaye, Choa-Arab village chief admits that his community is politically dominant, but he insists that this should not impact intercommunal relations.
He says, “I don’t see why it should cause antagonism among cattle breeders and fishermen.” “It shouldn’t have concerned them.”
Climate crisis: A sign of the times
Recent years have seen Cameroon, and the Sahel region in general, experience a rise in Armed conflicta growing scarcity of natural resources, often between farmers and herders. The new development of antagonism among Choa-Arabs & Mousgoums demonstrates the extent to which there has been increased competition for ever diminishing resources.
Dalaye says, “We have lived peacefully together for generations.” “And all of a sudden, a futile conflict like this sparks out simply because of grazing ground or cattle?” Brothers against brothers!
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He believes there is a way to get back. This involves “guaranteeing safe passage of our animals into the River as well as ensuring pasture space.”
Bara says it is difficult to see how they can reconcile their differences. “The trust that we had for one another has waned,” he said. “We might meet up and greet each other, but our hearts are still heavy. We used to meet in public places like markets, but we now avoid going into Choa-Arab villages.
Analysts agree that it is unlikely that lasting peace can be achieved without comprehensive action to combat the effects of climate collapse and coordinated local policies to ensure access resources. Violence is a symptom and not the root problem.
“When there is conflict between these communities the soldiers are called to stop it,” Fidele says. Fidele says that once there is some peace, the local authorities and leaders of both communities meet to discuss the situation.
“The conflict is over for now, but it is only on standby.”
Nalova Akua, a Cameroonian multimedia freelance journalist, treats news, features, and other events with equal passion. He has a BSc degree in journalism and has been featured in outlets such as Zenger News Service and Euronews Green, BBC Future Planet, and Gavi, The Vaccines Alliance.
