Conflict Reduction Programme

There has been over ten years of conflict between communities in Mali’s Northern region, as a result of the social and economic devastation caused by the Tuareg rebellion that raged from 1990 – 1995.

In addition to the lack of confidence that exists between communities, conflict is also fuelled by increased competition for diminishing natural resources, lack of employment and also the availability of small arms across the Sahel region.

Oxfam's work

Oxfam has a history of working on conflict reduction in the Gao region, having played an instrumental role in the peace building process during the Tuareg rebellion in the early 1990s.

Oxfam organised the first intercommunity meetings in Menaka County, which brought together Tuareg rebel combatants, community leaders, youth and women’s groups, and local authorities to discuss issues related to disarmament, security and peace.

Today, Oxfam’s Conflict programme continues to work with local partners and and communities to strengthen traditional methods and identify new methods to resolve conflict between communities. We endeavor to involve women’s groups in peace building, and encourage the collection and destruction of arms across the region.

Oxfam will soon expand our conflict work to the Western Kayes region of Mali. Sharing its borders with Senegal, Mauritania and Guinea, Kaye is increasingly becoming a centre of banditry, criminal activities and illegal small arms criminality.

Control Arms campaign

Oxfam’s Mali programme is also greatly involved in the Oxfam International Control Arms Campaign, championed by the Malian Government.

We work with Amnesty International Mali and the National Commission on Small Arms to support national civil society groups and journalists to lobby against the proliferation of small arms and to call for the adoption of an international arms trade treaty.

Oxfam have organised a number of high profile events in Mali as part of the Control Arms Campaign. During the France Africa Summit in December 2005, a caravan of over 200 camels draped with Control Arms banners walked across the dunes into Timbuktu, the ancient city of salt and gold to raise public awareness of the campaign.

The campaign also attracted a lot of support at the recent World Social Forum in Bamako, the first to be held in Africa, with the launch of a new media campaign and the collection of over 27,000 faces for the Million Faces Petition.

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Last updated: March 06