Mali: Herders and Hunters

MALI

Herders and Hunters

Mali’s ethnic Dogon hunters and semi-nomadic Fulani herders have long clashed over land and water. The recent massacre of more than 150 Fulani villagers – a third of whom were children – was a turning point, however.

Wielding guns and machetes and torching homes, Dogon hunters allegedly raided the village of Ogossagou in the Mopti region to retaliate against jihadist groups that are active in the West African country, the BBC explained. The Dogon claim the Fulani have ties with extremists.

That attack came after an al Qaeda-affiliated group took credit for killing 23 Malian soldiers, reported Reuters. That attack aimed to avenge prior violence against Fulanis.

The cycle of killing stems from the turmoil that has wrackedimpoverished Mali since 2012, when an insurgency led by another ethnic group, the Tuaregs, rose up in the country’s north. Al Qaeda took advantage of the chaos and gained footholds in the region at the same time.

French troops intervened, saving leaders in Bamako, the capital in the country’s south. But remote central and northern Mali are still dangerous places, as the Ogossagou attack illustrated.

After the massacre, Prime Minister Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga replaced top military leaders and disbanded a Dogon militia, the Dan Nan Ambassagou. “The protection of the population will remain the monopoly of the state,” Maiga told Al Jazeera.

It’s not clear if the militia was responsible for the Ogossagou attack. The militia’s leader told the Associated Press his fighters were not involved. Dogons have taken up arms because government troops can’t protect them, he argued. The Fulani claim the Dogon militias are collaborating with the Malian military.

The United Nations has sent investigators to the area to get the bottom of things.

“These traditional disputes have always been there,” Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesperson for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in a press release. “But lately it has taken on a particularly deadly turn because entire Fulani communities – and we are talking about millions of people – are being painted as violent extremists simply because they are Muslim.”

Mali is overwhelmingly Muslim but the Dogon adhere to traditional African religions while also following Islam.

Gen. Francois Lecointre, who leads the French military, said the bloodshed shows how anti-government forces are backed into a corner, according to Agence France-Presse.

CNN disagreed, writing that the violence in Mali was spiraling out of control. Around 200 civilians died in the Mopti region last year, Human Rights Watch found. This year is headed to be worse.

Hopefully Maiga’s measures will help. But, with instability so deep-rooted, it’s doubtful.