Escalating violence in West Africa's Sahel region is forcibly displacing thousands of traditional cattle herders, stripping them of their identity and driving a desperate migration towards coastal cities. Experts warn the crisis, fuelled by extremist-linked armed groups and climate tensions, is reshaping the region's demographics and overwhelming neighbouring nations.
Livelihoods Lost in Minutes
For generations, nomadic herding defined life for families like that of Nouhoun Sidibè, a 49-year-old from northern Burkina Faso. His world collapsed in 2020 when armed men seized his entire herd. "Within minutes... I lost everything," Sidibè recounted. After three years of searching for work in his homeland, he made the painful decision in 2023 to travel to neighbouring Ivory Coast, joining a growing exodus.
Now living in a cramped, basic shelter on a swampy wasteland on the outskirts of Abidjan, Sidibè embodies the profound loss felt by many. "I feel very, very lost. I was a chief, and now I have come here and I am working for someone else," he told The Associated Press, earning a meagre living by helping vaccinate other people's cattle.
A Region in Flight: Soaring Refugee Numbers
The conflict, which began with unrest in northern Mali in 2012, has spread across the central Sahel, engulfing Burkina Faso and Niger. Military juntas now in power in these three nations have intensified the fight against armed groups, but the violence has only worsened, triggering a spike in displacement.
Data reveals the alarming scale. Between January and March 2025 alone, more than 72,000 people fled violence in Burkina Faso and Mali to Ivory Coast, according to UNICEF. This marks a significant increase from the 54,000 refugees recorded by the International Organization for Migration in the three-year period from April 2021 to March 2024.
Ivory Coast, a regional economic hub, has long attracted migrants. However, the nature of this new influx is different. "Nomadic herders are among the most vulnerable people fleeing," the report notes. Many are ethnic Fulani Muslims, a group often falsely accused of colluding with the very militants who target them. "There is no Fulani without his cattle, that is his identity," explained Amadou Sonde, secretary general of the Federation of Burkinabè Fulani Associations in Ivory Coast.
Stripped of Identity, Struggling to Adapt
Forced into urban centres, these migrants face immense challenges. They contend with soaring living costs, high unemployment, and the difficult task of learning new skills. Jobs as drivers, shop assistants, or factory workers are a world away from pastoral life. Few have completed formal schooling, making adaptation even harder.
"With the insecurity surrounding livestock and tensions between farmers and herders, there has been a trend among Fulani herd owners to switch to land acquisition, real estate or shops," said Yao Kouamé, a sociology professor at Ivory Coast’s University of Bouakè. Yet, for most, such transitions are out of reach.
The trauma of loss is compounded by the impossibility of return. Herder Tanané Ibrahim, 42, fled Burkina Faso three years ago after militants took his sheep, cattle, and even chickens. "What is the point? The entire population has left for the city. The village is deserted," he said, brewing tea for fellow migrants in Abidjan. He speaks nostalgically of a lost freedom: "You’re with your animals, you can rest. In the city, everything is crazy expensive."
Analysts see no quick resolution. "The military juntas in the central Sahel states are becoming increasingly overwhelmed by assaults from multiple armed groups. The crisis is far from over," said Oluwole Ojewale, a conflict expert at the Institute of Security Studies. In response to the surge, Ivory Coast announced this month it is strengthening security along its northern borders, noting "several unusual flows of refugees from Mali."
For thousands like Sidibè and Ibrahim, the sprawling conflict in the Sahel has not only stolen their animals but also their way of life, leaving them stranded in an unfamiliar urban landscape, struggling to rebuild from nothing.
