Spatial insecurity and displacement in the Malian conflict

Keywords: Conflict, insecurity, responses, pastoralism, Sahel
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

This study examines secondary political violence data from ACLED and primary data from a survey on insecurity and responses to develop a theory of spatial insecurity, in which two principal factors contribute to insecurity: Spatial residence and spatial behaviors via livelihoods, employment, and mobility. The highly variable spatial impacts of conflict on different victims varies along many factors like group, ethnicity, and livelihood. Pastoralists may be especially targeted given their variable but generally high mobility, livestock herding and trading, historical grievances, and prejudices against groups like Fulani. Responses to conflict in the region remain a neglected topic of scholarship, particularly involving the link between ethnicity, livelihood, and conflict, with pastoralist-associated insecurity one of the major topics. The Sahel region, with the world's largest number and proportions of pastoralists in the world, has long-term livelihood adaptations given the region’s aridity, scarcity, and uncertainty. Tensions between pastoralists and other groups (including other pastoralists) has varied spatially and temporally, with most relations propitious and based in mutual exchange over goods. In areas of West Africa like Mopti (Mali) and Middle Belt (Nigeria), tensions have been inflamed over resource competition, political violence, extremism, and historical grievances, resulting in significant cycles of violence in these regions. The outcomes of these cyclical conflicts are poorly understood, and the primary data generated from surveys in three regions of Mali will begin to clarify responses to conflict in terms of mobility, employment, family separation, formation of armed groups, perceptions of insecurity, demographic dimensions of risk, and livelihoods.