Abidjan, Ivory Coast - Driven from their ancestral lands by escalating violence, herders from Burkina Faso and across the Sahel region are abandoning a centuries-old way of life and seeking refuge in coastal cities like Abidjan, facing economic hardship and an uncertain future. The influx represents a growing humanitarian crisis fueled by increasingly brazen attacks from armed militant groups and the inability of regional governments to provide security.
Ibrahim, a 42-year-old who fled his village three years ago after militants raided his livestock – even taking the chickens – embodies this displacement. ”What is the point? the entire population has left for the city. The village is deserted,” he saeid,now tending to other people’s herds in a wasteland outside Abidjan. His story is increasingly common as conflict overwhelms the Sahel, a vast semi-arid region south of the Sahara Desert. Experts warn the situation is deteriorating, with no immediate prospect of safe return for the displaced.
The conflict in the Sahel is intensifying, with military juntas in countries like Burkina Faso struggling to contain assaults from multiple armed groups. Oluwole Ojewale, a conflict expert at the Institute of Security Studies in Senegal, stated, “The crisis is far from over.” This escalating insecurity is forcing communities who have traditionally relied on pastoralism - herding livestock - to abandon their nomadic lifestyles and seek opportunities in urban centers.
Though, adapting to city life presents critically important challenges. Ibrahim, like many others, finds the cost of living prohibitive and the need for consistent wage labour a stark contrast to the freedoms of his past. “It was total freedom. You’re with your animals, you can rest,” he recalled with nostalgia. “In the city, everything is crazy expensive. You have to work hard to get paid, and when you pay for what you need to live, you have nothing left, so you have to go back to work.”
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