Dropstone ended the year 2018 with the evaluation of a conflict prevention and management project by communities in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. The project, implemented by the HD Centre since 2015, has selected, trained and created a network of 286 sedentary and nomadic community leaders. The traditional leaders have solved an impressive number of conflicts over the past years, in vast areas confronted to a lack of State control of their national territory. The conflicts between communities are mostly linked to the access of natural resources such as water or grazing land, the theft of cattle, the destruction of agricultural land, but also connected with the Malian politico-military crisis and the arrival of new Islamists actors in the area that has exacerbated and complexified the relations between communities.
