The effects of armed conflicts on local economic dynamics in the Mopti and Ségou regions of Mali

Authors

  • Mahamadou Bassirou Tangara

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15355/epsj.19.2.35

Keywords:

armed conflicts, Mali, economic dynamics, West Africa, production processes, social impact, economic disruption

Abstract

Armed conflicts significantly affect the social and economic conditions of societies in turmoil, disrupting the normal functioning of local economies. The study described in this article seeks to delve into the repercussions of armed conflicts on the dynamics of local economies in Ségou and Mopti, Mali, since the conflict outbreak in 2012. Employing a case study method, the research uses field observations and in-depth interviews with various stakeholders, including residents, displaced individuals, local authorities, former hostages, herders, farmers, traders, officials, and members of non-governmental organizations. The examination of the Ségou and Mopti cases underscores how armed conflicts have disrupted local production processes and curtailed population consumption patterns. Notably, weekly fairs that are pivotal for economic exchanges have been either prevented or abandoned by the populations. Additionally, farms face restrictions by enforced cultivation prohibition or the intentional burning of crops upon maturity. These findings contribute valuable insights into the nuanced effects of armed conflicts, cautioning against oversimplified generalizations derived from more aggregate analyses. The study sheds light on the intricacies of the local responses to conflict-induced economic challenges, offering a deeper understanding of the complexities involved.

This article is based on WIDER Working Paper 2024/53. Helsinki: UNU-WIDER. Available at: https://doi.org/10.35188/UNU-WIDER/2024/515-8 .

References

ACLED. 2022. ‘ACLED Codebook, 2019’. Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED). Available at: www.acleddata.com

Adam, A., and Sekeris. P. G., 2019. ‘Guerre et Paix: Les Vertus D’une Séparation des Pouvoirs Décisionnels’. Revue Française D’économie, XXXIV(3): pp.23–54.

https://doi.org/10.3917/rfe.193.0023

Bazzi, S., and Blattman C., 2014. ‘Economic Shocks and Conflict: Evidence from Commodity Prices’. American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, 6(4): pp.1–38.

https://doi.org/10.1257/mac.6.4.1

Beck, T. K. (2012). The Normality of Civil War: Armed Groups and Everyday Life in Angola. Frankfurt: Campus Verlag.

Benjaminsen, T. A., and Ba, B., 2021. ‘Fulani-Dogon Killings in Mali: Farmer-Herder Conflicts as Insurgency and Counterinsurgency’. African Security, 14(1): pp.4–26.

https://doi.org/10.1080/19392206.2021.1925035

Bisoka, A. N., M. B. Tangara, Z. Soré, and Mathys, G., 2024. ‘Introduction. Repolitiser les Paysanneries dans les Conflits Violents en Afrique et en Amérique Latine’. Revue Internationale des Études du Développement, (255): pp.9–38.

Brück, T., P. Justino, P. Verwimp, and Avdeenko, A., 2010. ‘Identifying Conflict and Violence in Micro-Level Surveys’. HiCN Working Paper 79. Brighton: Households in Conflitct Network.

https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1650612

Brück, T., P. Justino, P. Verwimp, and Tedesco A., 2013. ‘Measuring Conflict Exposure in Micro-Level Surveys’. Stockholm: LSMS-ISA.

Chebli, D., 2022. ‘Économie Transnationale de la Violence et Autonomisation des Milices au Nord du Mali’. Cultures & Conflits, 125: pp.95–113.

https://doi.org/10.4000/conflits.23640

Collier, P., and Hoeffler, A. 2004. ‘Greed and Grievance in Civil War’. Oxford University Press, 56(2004): pp.563–95.

https://doi.org/10.1093/oep/gpf064

Cox, G. W., North, D. C. and Weingast, B. R., 2019. ‘The Violence Trap: A Political-Economic Approach to the Problems of Development’. Journal of Public Finance and Public Choice, 34(1): pp.3–19.

https://doi.org/10.1332/251569119X15537797528769

Cravo, T. A., 2018. ‘Consolidation de la Paix: Postulats, Pratiques et Critiques’. ASPJ Afrique & Francophonie, 1: pp.5–21.

Fearon, J. D., 1995. ‘Rationalist Explanations for War’. International Organization, 49(3): pp.379–414.

https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315268927

Fearon, J. D., and D. D. L. Stanford (2003). ‘Fearon_Laitin_Apsr’. The American Political Science Association, 97(1): pp.75–90.

Goodhand, J., 2001. ‘Violent Conflict, Poverty and Chronic Poverty’. Working Paper 6. Zurich: Chronic Poverty Research Centre.

https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1754535

Grossman, H. I., and Kim, M., 1995. ‘Swords or Plowshares? A Theory of the Security of Claims to Property’. Journal of Political Economy, 103(6): pp.1275–88.

https://doi.org/10.1086/601453

Hegre, H., Nygard, H. M., Strand, H. Gates, S., and Flaten, R. D., 2011. ‘The Conflict Trap’. Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Seattle.

https://doi.org/10.1177/0022002713516845

Hirshleifer, J., 1995. ‘Anarchy and its Breakdown’. Journal of Political Economy, 103(1): pp.26–52.

https://doi.org/10.1086/261974

Hugon, P., 2006. ‘Conflits Armés, Insécurité et Trappes à Pauvreté en Afrique’. Afrique Contemporaine, 218(2): pp.33–47.

https://doi.org/10.3917/afco.218.47

Hugon, P., 2001. ‘L’ Economie des Conflits en Afrique’. Revue Internationale et Stratégie, 3(43): pp.152–69.

Jourde, C., Brossier, M. and Cissé, M. G., 2019. ‘Prédation et Violence au Mali: Elites Statutaires Peules et Logiques de Domination dans la Région de Mopti’. Canadian Journal of African Studies, 53(3): pp.431–45.

https://doi.org/10.1080/00083968.2019.1666016

Justino, P., 2011. ‘Violent Conflict and Human Capital Accumulation’. IDS Working Paper 2011(379). Brighton: IDS.

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2040-0209.2011.00379_2.x

Karim, S., 2020. ‘Relational State Building in Areas of Limited Statehood: Experimental Evidence on the Attitudes of the Police’. American Political Science Review, 114(2): pp.536–51. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055419000716

Krauser, M., 2020. ‘In the Eye of the Storm: Rebel Taxation of Artisanal Mines and Strategies of Violence’. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 64(10): pp.1968–93.

https://doi.org/10.1177/0022002720916824

Lake, M., 2022. ‘Policing Insecurity’. American Political Science Review, 116(3): pp.858–74.

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055421001441

Laville, C., 2019. ‘Les Causes des Conflits Civils: Avancées Récentes a L’aide de Données Désagrégées’. Revue Française D’économie, XXXIV(3): pp.123–65.

https://doi.org/10.3917/rfe.193.0123

Leader Maynard, J., 2019. ‘Ideology and Armed Conflict’. Journal of Peace Research, 56(5): pp.635–49.

https://doi.org/10.1177/0022343319826629

León, G., 2012. ‘Civil Conflict and Human Capital Accumulation: The Long-Term Effects of Political Violence in Perú’. Journal of Human Resources, 47(4): pp.991–1022.

https://doi.org/10.3368/jhr.47.4.991

Marchal, R., 1997. ‘Terminer Une Guerre’. In R. Marchal and C. Messiant (eds), Les Chemins de la Guerre et de la Paix. Fins de Conflit en Afrique Orientale et Australe, pp. 5–48. Paris : Karthala.

https://doi.org/10.3917/kart.march.2009.01

Menuet, M., A. Pietri, and Sekeris, P. G., 2019. ‘Économie Des Conflits: Histoire, Méthodologie Et Enjeux De La Recherche’. Revue Française D’économie, XXXIV(3): pp.3–21.

https://doi.org/10.3917/rfe.193.0003

Mercier, M., Ngenzebuke, R. L., and Verwimp, P., 2020. ‘Violence Exposure and Poverty: Evidence from the Burundi Civil War’. Journal of Comparative Economics, 48(4).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jce.2020.04.005

Ouattara, I., Guindo, M., Traoré, A., and C. Adama (2020). Diagnostic Socio Economique des Régions du Centre du Mali. New York: UNDP. Available at: https://mptf.undp.org/sites/default/files/documents/40000/35922 (Accessed: August 2024).

Pareto, V., 1909. Manual of Political Economy. French translation from the Italian edition, reprinted in Oeuvres completes, 1966. Geneva: Libraire Droz.

PDSEC, 2017. ‘Conseil Régional de Mopti : Plan/Programme de Développement Economique et Culturel’. Available at: https://groupedesuivibudgetaire.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/PDESC-2017-2021_CR-Mopti-VF.pdf (Accessed: 21 August 2024).

Poudiougou, I., 2024a. ‘Dan Nan Ambassagou, un Mouvement D’autodéfense Armé en pays Dogon’. Anthropos, 118(2), 395–418.

https://doi.org/10.5771/0257-9774-2023-2-395

Poudiougou, I., 2024b. ‘Défendre le Village et Combattre Pour le Terroir: La Mobilisation Armée des Groupes D’autodéfense a L’épreuve du Travail Agricole en Pays Dogon, au Centre du Mali’. Revue Internationale des Études du Développement, (255): pp.97–118.

https://doi.org/10.4000/11zhk

Powell, R., 2006. ‘War as a Commitment Problem’. International Organization, 60(1): pp.169–203.

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020818306060061

Raleigh, C., Kishi, R., and Linke, A., 2023. ‘Political Instability Patterns are Obscured by Conflict Dataset Scope Conditions, Sources, and Coding Choices’. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 10(74).

https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01559-4

Rashid, I., and Niang, A., 2021. Researching Peacebuilding in Africa. Oxfordshire: Routledge.

https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003111740

Rosière, S., 2011. Géographie des Conflits Armés et des Violences Politiques. Paris : Ellipses.

Sandor, A., and Campana, A., 2019. ‘Les Groupes Djihadistes au Mali, Entre Violence, Recherche de Légitimité et Politiques Locales’. Canadian Journal of African Studies, 53(3): pp.415–30.

https://doi.org/10.1080/00083968.2019.1667838

Skaperdas, S., 1992. ‘Cooperation, Conflict, and Power in the Absence of Property Rights’. American Economic Review, 82(4): pp.720–39. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2117341

Smith, A., 1776. Recherches Sur la Nature et les Causes de la Richesse des Nations (Vol.1). Paris : Guillaumin et Cie, Librairies.

Soré, Z., M. Cote, and Zongo, B., 2021. ‘Politiser le Vide Sécuritaire: à Propos des Groupes D’autodéfense Koglweogo au Burkina Faso’. Politique Africaine, 163(3): pp.127–44.

https://doi.org/10.3917/polaf.163.0127

Sun, B., Chen, X., Zhang, L., and W. Ma (2019). ‘Three-Way Decision Making Approach to Conflict Analysis and Resolution Using Probabilistic Rough Set Over Two Universes’. Information Sciences, 507: pp.809–22.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ins.2019.05.080

Tobie, A., and Sangaré, B., 2019. Impacts des Groupes Armés Sur les Populations au Nord et au Centre du Mali Adaptations Souhaitables des Stratégies de Rétablissement de la Paix. Stockholm: SIPRI.

Tounkara, A., and Gaye, B., 2019. Le Djihad à Ké-Macina Dans le Centre du Mali: Prosélytisme Religieux ou Enjeux Socio-économiques? Paris: L’Harmatta.

Vignal, L., 2018. ‘Produire, Consommer, Vivre : Les Pratiques Economiques du Quotidien Dans la Syrie en Guerre (2011–2018)’. Critique Internationale, 80(3): pp.45–65.

https://doi.org/10.3917/crii.080.0045

Walther, O., 2017. « Wars and Conflicts in the Sahara-Sahel », West African Papers, n° 10, Éditions OCDE, Paris.

https://doi.org/10.1787/8bbc5813-en.

World Bank, 2023. World Development Indicators Data. Washington, DC: World Bank. Available at: https://databank.worldbank.org/source/world-development-indicators#

World Bank, 2011. World Development Report 2011: Conflict, Security, and Development. Washington, DC: World Bank.

World Bank (2024), Poverty and Inequality Platform (version 20240627_2017_01_02_PROD) [data set]. pip.worldbank.org. Available at: https://pip.worldbank.org/poverty-calculator (Accessed: 16 October 2024)

Published

2024-10-19 — Updated on 2024-10-22

Versions

How to Cite

Tangara, M. B. (2024). The effects of armed conflicts on local economic dynamics in the Mopti and Ségou regions of Mali. The Economics of Peace and Security Journal, 19(2), 35–54. https://doi.org/10.15355/epsj.19.2.35 (Original work published October 19, 2024)

Issue

Section

Articles

Similar Articles

<< < 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 > >> 

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.