Land use conflicts in Western Rural Niger: Kollo and Tillabery Arrondissements

'Fallow of Discord' was the title of a recent article in Sahel Dimanche (1992) describing land disputes between two neighboring cantons in the Filingué arrondissement, Tondikandia and Tagazar. This conflict, which dates back to 1928, resulted in four killings and twenty wounded. Conflicts among farmers, herders, villages, and cantons have been common in Niger's rural areas in recent years. The literature is replete with studies on the land tenure system in Niger (Raulin 1961, 196?, 1965; Latour Dejean 1973; Mariko 1971, 1985a, 1985b; Keita 1985; Arzika 1985); however, there is little documentation of the nature of land conflicts, the different parties involved, and how they affect the land tenure systems and the development strategies started by the Government of Niger. The aim of this paper is to fill some of these gaps and make a first assessment about the capabilities of a new rural code to address tenure reform and conflict over land access.