Pastoralists are increasingly participating in political movements and agitation in the Sahel. They have so far been relatively invisible in the Sahel region. However, over the past decades their livelihoods have eroded under the impact of drought and the emergence of commercial herding. Pastures have decreased in surface area because of the population growth. Many of them are moving southwards to look for greener pastures and to be connected to markets for their products. However, they encounter an ever more hostile population and problems with representatives of government. Internally the gap between sedentary elites, who are often politically better connected, and the herdsmen has widened enormously.

What factors account for their current conflicts with the State and sedentary neighbours, and the alienation from their own elite? What kind of political messages do they formulate? What are the implications for regional political, economic and sociocultural stability? These new forms of political mobilization will be investigated within the historical context of transnational flows connecting the Sahel to other countries and to the world through migration with and without herds, new Information and communication technologies, international criminal networks, home-grown insurgency and the rise of cohesive regional political structures.

The focus is Central Mali, where Jihadist groups draw (part of) their membership (amongst others) from the ranks of young pastoralists and Nigeria where inter-community violence has become rampant and takes more victims than the Boko Haram insurgency.