Entre aridité et radicalisme : le pastorialisme au Sahel à la croisée des chemins

A zone of complex mobilities, a region with a diversified history and plural development, a key space for major socioeconomic and political balances, the Sahel has produced its own internal conflicts, but also the mechanisms to manage them. However, for a decade, the Sahel has also been a region affected by crises resulting from the presence of radical groups which strongly affect pastoral areas and have turned into cross-border conflicts, with multidirectional contamination between areas which has led to numerous military engagements, national, regional and international. This note covers on the one hand many subjects related to the economies of arid zones, of which pastoralism is the main mode of development and in particular with the methods of management of the resources of these agroecosystems, in particular the water resources that they feature. It offers a reading that seeks to enhance the endogenous mechanisms of conflict management in pastoral areas. On the other hand, it deals with the interactions with the conflictual dynamics that have appeared with the emergence of radical movements, the takeover of territories with pastoral dominance by the latter and the counter-reaction of agricultural societies and that of the governments of the region. Finally, it seeks to identify some avenues of work to better understand these areas and to seek solution options.