Central Africa Validates Research on Cameroon, Chad, CAR Cross-border Conflict

On 28 June 2022, NELGA Central Africa brought together experts on land issues from several Central African countries for a validation workshop on its research on evaluating the triggers and solutions to cross-border conflicts between Cameroon, Chad and CAR through the land lens.

These experts met to enrich the project document on land conflicts between farmers and herders on the three borders of Cameroon, Chad and CAR for validation. The workshop was attended by 20 people who made suggestions on different parts of the document through plenary and group discussions. Professor Tchawa Paul, the coordinator of NELGA CA, who took part in the workshop, hoped that donors interested in the issue would be open to discussions with a view to funding the effective implementation of this project.

In 2021, NELGA Central Africa embarked on baseline research to find lasting solutions to conflicts between farmers and herders along the Cameroon, Chad and CAR borders.

For years, conflicts between farmers and herders in the Sahelian regions have occurred repeatedly. Farmers and herders need spaces that offer appropriate resources to expand their agricultural activities but with the contribution of climate change resources are dwindling and conflicts ensue from the struggle over limited resources which has a huge impact on women who are the primary users of land in rural-border areas.

Although there are innovative practices in finding peaceful resolutions of land conflicts without recourse to the laws, however, these peace terms do not stand the test of time and end up with the destruction of property, loss of life and internally displaced persons.

The meeting provided the opportunity to review and arrive at a consensus on the research and proposed solutions to the land conflict based on the frameworks and guidelines of the African Union thereby looking at sustainable solutions to the management of cross-border land conflicts between Cameroon, Chad and CAR.