10 killed as herdsmen, farmers clash in Chad

At least ten people have been killed in fresh fighting
between nomadic herders and farmers in southern
Chad , a local prosecutor said Sunday , with the most of
the deaths happening during a funeral .
The herders claimed to have lost a cow and tracked it
down to a farm , said Brahim Ali Kolla , prosecutor in
Moundou, Chad ’ s second – largest city and capital of the
southwest province.
The herders sent a representative to reclaim the animal
on Thursday but he was killed and the farmers
attacked the herdsmen at his funeral the same day , he
added .
Clashes between settled farmers and the nomadic Arab
herders , many of them armed, are a worsening
problem in the arid Sahel , where tensions over access
to land are frequent .
Much of the violence occurs when herders, sometimes
crossing the border from Sudan , drive their stock onto
the field of a so – called sedentary farmer, trampling
crops and sparking a confrontation between the two
communities .
On Thursday ten people were killed in all, including
the man who was being buried , said the prosecutor ,
upon his return to Moundou on Sunday from the scene
of the fighting some 60 kilometres away .
All the victims were nomadic Arab herders, he added .
Forty – three people involved in the violence were
arrested , including six local canton and village chiefs .
On Monday, in another part of southern Chad , three
herders and eight farmers were killed in fighting .
Southern Chad , with its milder climate , has long
attracted pastoralists from the Sahel desert areas to the
north .