Cattle Theft
With the Burkina Faso workshop fast approaching, I have been working on drafting more case studies for community members and court personnel on the ground. With the help of JSD’s field coordinator, I researched cattle theft, which has been extremely prevalent in the region. Cattle theft is a particularly troubling issue in Burkina Faso because more than 80% of the country works in agriculture. And because cattle thefts have been on the rise, Burkinabe feel like the State is not taking enough precautions to protect their livelihoods. They thus turn to other means of protection such as self-defense or jihadist groups.
The Koglweogo, for instance, have drawn thousands to join their ranks precisely because they provide security and justice to those who feel like the State fails to do so. In the case we are preparing for the workshop, someone’s heifers get stolen and the case takes five years in the formal justice system. By contrast, if the Koglweogo were to handle the dispute, the case would take at most a week if the accused does not admit his guilt right away.
This type of scenario, in turn, poses an even bigger issue for the region as a whole. Indeed, self-defense groups and ethnic militias are multiplying in the Sahel where people feel as if they have to take matters into their own hands. JSD’s role is thus to develop dialogues at the local level to understand how to improve people’s perception of the security and justice systems so that they can trust their government and prevent proliferation of weapons and, eventually, of extremism.