In Chad, a Central African country, conflicts between nomadic and sedentary pastoralists are recurrent. In just two days, 19 people were killed in the fighting in mid-September, according to the new official toll released today.

“Nineteen people were killed, 22 wounded and 18 arrested,” said Lamane Nguessangar, Attorney General at the Court of Appeal in Sahr, capital of Moyen-Chari province, referring to the new toll of conflicts between breeders and farmers in Chad. A previous death toll was ten

Violence broke out on Tuesday, September 13, and spread to Wednesday, September 14, in southeastern Chad. On the grounds, a group of cows has taken over the farmers’ fields. A spat between two members of these groups in the town of Marabe, 500 km southeast of the capital N’Djamena, escalated into two neighboring towns and resulted in the deaths of about 20 people.

Clashes between communities are common in central and southern Chad, where many people are armed. They often pit nomadic Arab breeders against sedentary indigenous farmers. The latter accuse the nomads of letting their animals ravage their fields.

Faced with drought making their animals thirsty, diseases decimating their herds, the Arab nomads are more and more forced to sedentary life. They mostly come from the arid Sahelian zones of northern Chad and seek to settle on more fertile land favorable to the breeding of their camels and sheep.