Concordis International has surveyed over 3000 people in the borderlands of the north-east Central African Republic. One place, Markounda, on the border with Chad, represents a snapshot of what those conversations discovered.

Markounda is a crucial border crossing for livestock and goods, as well as being a big mining area.  This makes it vitally important for the economies of both CAR and Chad, but also an attractive target for criminal gangs and susceptible to armed conflict.

Concordis recently brokered a cross-border peace agreement there, which put in place agreed taxation and security protocols between the Central African and Chadian military and local authorities, to ensure trade and cattle movements can take place smoothly and to the mutual benefit of all sides.

What do we learn from our work in Markounda? Effective problem-solving starts with dialogue and questions, to find the roots of conflict. That well-managed infrastructure helps promote peace if it is designed in a conflict-sensitive way to meet the expressed needs of the community.

Our snapshot on Markounda is quite clear on what the community wants. They recognise transhumance and herder-farmer conflicts as threats to peace. All sides of the conflict want to promote harmonious living and improve social cohesion at the local level. They have requested more action to be taken to raise awareness of how each community lives, develop mutual respect for their differences and put in place good management of shared resources. 

The Concordis team spoke to 108 people in the Markounda district in 2023. 55% of respondents reported having experienced conflict in their locality over the past 12 months; 96% of these conflicts were related to transhumance and cattle herding. These conflicts are eroding society, in Markounda and across the wider border areas.

Violence decreases when there is trust and trade

Asked which infrastructures have the most potential to improve relations between farmers and herders, 38% of respondents chose markets, where people come together to trade. There is an innate understanding that violence decreases when there is trust. A viable market that provides opportunities for all sides to build a relationship is seen by the community as a place that exposes both communities to each other regularly, therefore building trust and facilitating amicable resolutions of conflicts.

Markounda residents acknowledge that competition over access to shared resources is a source of conflict. 24% of the people consulted believe that shared community boreholes have the potential to improve social cohesion and be enablers of peace. When managed in a fair way that takes into account the different needs of people who access them and treats all users equitably, community boreholes can be a space to build trust.

Sustainable peace is promoted through awareness and dialogue between farmers-herders

Most Markounda communities, having extensive experience in managing inter-communal conflicts, believe that sustainable peace is facilitated by raising awareness of how herders and farmers can live harmoniously together (82% of multiple responses) and through dialogues (41%). Few within the community believed in hard measures such as cattle corridor zoning (17%), security reinforcement (14%) and disarmament of armed groups (14%).

Peacebuilding practitioners and donors alike need to have the flexibility to integrate insights from the community with whom they work, for sustainable peace to be attainable. 

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