2024-08-05 22:13:29
Nomadic herders and cattle traders face many dangers from insecurity in the Sahel region, livestock theft, attacks by armed groups or arrests by law enforcement.
Our special correspondent in Ghana:
The Turaku Market in Accra is the largest cattle market in Ghana. Thousands of bulls and cows are displayed there. Road to Burkina Faso becomes very dangerous due to security issues », explains this man from the Sahel country. He arrived by truck with his animals. By the end of the day he had sold five. But coming from Burkina Faso means exposing yourself to a lot of dangers. ” We have to deal with mistrust between security forces and terrorists. So it is a real problem », he added.
Ithaca now has to go through Togo to get to Burkina Faso. And worse: two years ago, he was attacked in Burkina Faso.” Armed men stole 9 million CFA francs from me. And after that, I had nothing. So from then on I lived on credit. I came and went, I had debts. », he complained.
The Burkinabe is one of the few traders still travelling to his country. All he does is to help his family back home, who themselves have no livestock left and most have been displaced to refugee camps.
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Supply route changes
Other traders refuse to make the journey as too dangerous. Mahmoud Diallo, also from Burkina Faso and who has lived in Accra for several years, no longer goes to the Sahel. He has found other options. Often terrorists block the roads and they take all the animals away. Before, we bought cattle in Burkina Faso and brought them here. But now, we can’t buy them anymore because of the insecurity. That’s why we go to Togo or Benin and bring the animals back here. », explains Mahmoud Diallo.
At a market in Gunayli, northern Ghana, we met another livestock trader who was also from Burkina Faso but had lived in Ghana for a long time. More and more people are migrating to Ghana with or without livestock because they are fleeing violence and want to save their lives. People are fleeing where they feel safe », he testified.
In Ghana, all the livestock traders we met, whether engaged in herding activities or not, were keen to see peace in the Sahel.
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