Islamist Insurgencies Feed Age-Old West African Conflicts
- West Africa sees huge rise in herder-farmer clashes over land
- Climate change, population growth contribute to the violence
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Alassane Dicko used to lead his cattle each day through the grasslands of central Mali until gunmen burned down his village and took all his animals. Now he lives on the edge of a landfill in the capital, Bamako.
Dicko, 38, is one of hundreds of ethnic Fulanis who fled their homes in recent months because of violent disputes over land and water, pitting herders against crop farmers and hunters. Such communal conflict in Mali and other West African nations is being stoked by a toxic combination of climate change, population growth and state neglect and exploited by Islamist insurgencies, which have drawn the intervention of French and United Nations troops.