Aid in Action

Building Peace along Borders

Mitigating Conflict along the pastoralist arc of the Horn of Africa

 | Wednesday, November 01, 2006

The pastoralist arc of the Horn of Africa is plagued by conflict that stems from competition over scarce resources. Disputes over pasture, access to water and livestock are common and often fueled by an abundance of automatic weapons. Under the Cross Border Conflict Mitigation Initiative of the PEACE program, USAID is supporting coalitions of state and non-state actors to perform governance functions in ungoverned areas.

One such initiative involves communities in the cross-border area of Mandera District, Kenya and of the Gedo Region, Somalia. Under this initiative a regional peace market was established to serve all citizens. To ensure equal market access, a joint management committee for resolving market disputes was instituted. The following is a story from the committee records.

Two Livestock traders, a Kenyan man, and an Ethiopian woman traveled to Gode in Ethiopia to purchase livestock for re-sale at Mandera. Sensing stiff competition from her rival, the woman devised a plan to stop the other from accessing the market.  She hired hit men and paid them to kill the Kenyan trader.  The hit men approached the Kenyan and told him for his safety he should not purchase any livestock and should return home.

The Kenyan realizing the situation asked other sources about it. He learned of his fellow trader’s plan and decided to return. After two weeks the Ethiopian trader came to the Mandera Peace Market to sell the livestock she purchased in Gode, the Kenyan trader recognizing her immediately alerted the conflict resolution committee.  The committee called in the traders to listen to their story and also requested the presence of their immediate family a well as a wider audience of clan members and traders from both Kenya and Ethiopia to act as witnesses. Having established the validity of the Kenyan’s story, the conflict resolution committee mediated between the two traders, the Ethiopian took responsibility for her attitude and behavior and apologized to the Kenyan, committing herself to peaceful future trading. In turn the Kenyan trader accepted the apology and agreed not to take revenge.  The conflict resolution committee averted a crisis without escalation of violence or closure of the market.