In Senegal, climate change is adding to historic tension between farmers and herders

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Cheikh Diouf and his father had just delivered a load of manure to the family's fields near their village in January when Diouf, returning home for a second load, got an urgent phone call from his sister-in-law: His father, she said, was arguing with a group of herders. By the time Diouf raced to the field, his father was dead, struck down by machete blows.

There was no trace of the attackers, but Diouf and his family blame herders whose animals had grazed into the cassava fields that Moussa Diouf was cultivating. The elder Diouf, in his 60s, spent most of his time in the fields or at a mosque where he served as muezzin, performing the daily call to prayer.

“It hurts so much," Diouf, 18, said. "If only I had been there, he wouldn’t have died. Either I or the herder would have died — but not my father. If I ever meet that herder, I will avenge him, that’s for sure.”

Tension between farmers and herders has long been a fact of life in West Africa, but climate change is ramping it up. Declining rainfall and rising temperatures have dried up pasture land at the same time agricultural use has expanded. And that's meant more frequent conflict as nomadic herders, and their cattle, sheep and goats, range through the region searching for grazing.

Senegal has averaged about 27% less annual rainfall in the past 30 years than it did from 1951 to 1980, according to data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service. Meanwhile, farmers also complain that it's become impossible to determine when the rains will begin and end — sometimes delaying seeding or damaging crops.

The Peul, or Fulani, are herders who have traditionally raised animals across a vast territory from Senegal to Nigeria. Their nomadic movements are essential in a region that doesn't produce enough vegetation to feed a large number of animals in one place all year long. They also supply two-thirds or more of the meat and milk sold in the region's markets, according to a United Nations study.

In Senegal, the approach of the dry season in October and November typically sees them moving their herds southward from the semi-desert northern region along centuries-old routes. But in recent decades, that southward journey has become longer as they’ve had to search for more favorable land, and it's during this migration — which overlaps with harvest — when disputes between the two groups are worst.

Animals can struggle to find grazing because grass has often been cut to sell as forage. That can lead shepherds to cut branches from trees to feed their animals, contributing to deforestation and desertification. And when the animals pass near crops, which typically aren't fenced or monitored, they are attracted to the food.

It's difficult to get accurate data on violent incidents because Senegal doesn't have a specific investigation system in place and most aren't officially recorded. They're often mediated locally with village chiefs overseeing. But Senegalese media have reported numerous instances since 2024, including a death in Amdalah and serious injuries in Diounto, both in January 2025.

Both shepherds and farmers use cutting tools in their daily work and in disputes they can easily be weapons. That's the case with the diassi, a small machete that can cut tall grass or wood to build a hut, cut branches to feed an animal or serve as protection against wild animals or cattle thieves.

Dr. Yawma Fall, deputy head of the Ndofane medical center in the Kaolack region, said in the past 18 months she has seen wounds from clashes between farmers and herders. She described a shepherd about 12 years old struck in the shoulder with an ax by a man apparently angered because the boy's livestock entered his field. She described another shepherd who lost fingers when he was struck with a blade.

In the Saint-Louis region, near the Mauritanian border, an ordinary day in the fields in 2022 turned into a confrontation that cost Mamadou Gueye, a 39-year-old farmer, his left hand. He described a fight with a herder over cattle that included a motorbike chase.

“As soon as they saw us coming, they drew their machetes to scare us. That’s when I was struck — I saw my blood flowing fast," he said. He added: “The relationship between us and the herders is very tense; we mistrust each other. There’s no friendship between them and me.”

On the outskirts of the village of Ndofane, 45-year-old Fode Diome sits beneath a tree where he spends most of his days watching over his fields.

Problems between herders and farmers have existed for a long time, he said.

"It’s normal that animals need to eat, I agree, but there are specific times when transhumance is allowed," he said, using the term for moving livestock to new grazing areas.

"Unfortunately, most herders don’t respect this rule, and that causes damage. They’re allowed to come only after the harvest, when all fieldwork is done, usually in January and not before. Sometimes the nomads stay here until the next rains, and we ask them to leave because we need to prepare the fields for the new season.”

For herders, finding pasture is a major concern, complicated by the gradual expansion of land under cultivation. They also have the burden of nurturing their animals through winter, as well as costs of veterinary care and feed that are difficult for the average herder.

“There’s no grass left for the livestock. Everywhere you go, there are fields. It has become very difficult,” says Alioune Sow, a 61-year-old herder from Linguere. “Especially after the rainy season: if you don’t move with your animals in search of pasture, you’re forced to buy feed. There are no cattle paths. Since fields are almost everywhere, the animals wander into them and sometimes they get poisoned.”

Sitting on a worn wooden platform in the shade of a large, low canopy, he keeps watch over his goats, gathered inside a small enclosure within Dakar’s sprawling livestock market. He said he hasn't had major disputes with farmers, but some of his relatives have.

He said one possible solution would be to designate land specifically for farmers and other areas reserved for herders.

Senegal doesn't have a national entity that manages conflict between agriculture and herding. Mediation falls mainly to local communities, helped out by associations and other nongovernmental bodies.

Labgar, a village in the Louga region, has managed to defuse some of the tensions between farmers and herders, said Papa Khokhane Seydou Faye, the village's agricultural and rural adviser since 2017. Many longtime nomadic routes pass through the village.

With help from NGO workers, the village organizes periodic meetings with members of both groups on sensitive issues such as fires, deforestation and grazing conflict, to talk about possible solutions. In one workshop, the solutions discussed for grazing conflict included more clearly marking grazing trails as well as field boundaries.

Associated Press data journalist M.K. Wildeman contributed from Hartford, Connecticut.

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. For global health and development coverage in Africa, the AP receives financial support from the Gates Foundation. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Cattle are for sale at the big livestock market in Dakar, one of the largest in Senegal, Oct. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrea Ferro)

Peul, herders who have traditionally raised animals across lands from Senegal to Nigeria, gather at a workshop organized by a local association to raise awareness of environmental issues related to transhumance, moving livestock from one grazing area to another, in Labgar, Louga region, Senegal, Oct. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrea Ferro)

Okra fields are visible through a fence that is used to protect against animals near Savoigne, Saint-Louis region, Senegal, Oct. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrea Ferro)

Peul herder Alioune Sow, a 61-year-old from Ndila, a village in the Louga region, keeps an eye on the sheep he brought to sell at the big livestock market in Dakar, Senegal, Oct. 26, 2025. Peul herders have traditionally raised animals across lands from Senegal to Nigeria. (AP Photo/Andrea Ferro)

Fode Diome, a farmer, guards his fields with some of his children near Ndofane, Kaolack region, Senegal, Oct. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrea Ferro)

Cattle are left to graze and feed in millet fields that have already been harvested near Ndofane, Kaolack region, Senegal, Oct. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrea Ferro)

Fode Diome, a farmer, collects samples from his millet crops near Ndofane, Kaolack region, Senegal, Oct. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrea Ferro)

Fode Diome, a farmer, returns from the fields where he grows millet near Ndofane, Kaolack region, Senegal, Oct. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrea Ferro)

Mamadou Gueye, a 39-year-old farmer who lost his left hand after a fight with a herder over cattle in May 2022, guards his fields of peanuts Oct. 12, 2025, in Ross Bethio, Senegal. (AP Photo/Andrea Ferro)

Seydou Sow, a farmer, right, works in his okra fields with some helpers near Savoigne, Saint-Louis region, Senegal, Oct. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrea Ferro)

A fence surrounds okra fields to protect against animals near Savoigne, Saint-Louis region, Senegal, Oct. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrea Ferro)

A Peul, a herder who has traditionally raised animals across lands from Senegal to Nigeria, drinks freshly milked cow's milk from one of his cattle in Labgar, Louga region, Senegal, Oct. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrea Ferro)

A caravan of Peul, herders who have traditionally raised animals across lands from Senegal to Nigeria, during transhumance, moving livestock from one grazing area to another, near Labgar, Louga region, Senegal, Oct. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrea Ferro)

Cheikh Diouf, a farmer, walks on Oct. 25, 2025, near where his father was killed during a confrontation with a herder in January 2025, near the village of Keur Mame Mareme, Thies region, Senegal. (AP Photo/Andrea Ferro)

A herder grazes his herd of bovines near Savoigne, Saint-Louis region, Senegal, Oct. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrea Ferro)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran fired more missiles at Israel and Gulf Arab states Thursday, demonstrating Tehran’s continued ability to strike its neighbors even as U.S. President Donald Trump claimed the threat from the country was nearly eliminated.

Iran’s attacks on Gulf states along with its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz have disrupted the world’s energy supplies with effects far beyond the Middle East. That has proved to be Iran’s greatest strategic advantage in the war. Britain planned to hold a call with nearly three dozen countries about how to reopen the strait once the fighting is over.

Trump has insisted the strait can be taken by force — but said it is not up to the U.S. to do that. In an address to the American people Wednesday night, he encouraged countries that depend on oil from Hormuz to “build some delayed courage” and go “take it.”

Before the U.S. and Israel started the war on Feb. 28 with strikes on Iran, the waterway was open to traffic and 20% of all traded oil used passed through it.

Iran responded defiantly to Trump’s speech, in which the American president claimed U.S. military action had been so decisive that “one of the most powerful countries” is “really no longer a threat.”

A spokesman for Iran’s military, Lt. Col. Ebrahim Zolfaghari, insisted Thursday that Tehran maintains hidden stockpiles of arms, munitions and production facilities. He said facilities targeted so far by U.S. strikes are “insignificant.”

Just before Trump began his address — in which he said U.S. “core strategic objectives are nearing completion” — explosions were heard in Dubai as air defenses worked to intercept an Iranian missile barrage.

Less than a half-hour after the president was done, Israel said its military was also working to intercept incoming missiles. Sirens sounded in Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, immediately after the speech.

Attacks continued across Iran on Thursday, with strikes reported in multiple cities.

In Lebanon — home to Iran-backed Hezbollah militants who are fighting Israel, which has launched a ground invasion — an Israeli strike killed four people in the south, the Health Ministry said.

More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran during the war, while 19 have been reported dead in Israel. More than two dozen people have died in Gulf states and the occupied West Bank, while 13 U.S. service members have been killed.

More than 1,200 people have been killed and more than 1 million displaced in Lebanon. Ten Israeli soldiers have also died there.

Iranian attacks on about two dozen commercial ships, and the threat of more, have halted nearly all traffic in the waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the open ocean.

Since March 1, traffic through the strait has dropped 94% over the same period last year, according to the Lloyds List Intelligence shipping data firm. Two ships are confirmed to have paid a fee, the firm said, while others were allowed through based on agreements with their home governments.

In order to bypass Hormuz, Saudi Arabia has been piping more oil to a Red Sea port, and Iraq said Thursday that it had started to truck oil across Syria to the Mediterranean.

The 35 countries speaking Thursday, including all G7 industrialized democracies except the U.S., as well as the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, signed a declaration last month demanding Iran stop blocking the strait.

Thursday’s talks were focused on political and diplomatic measures, but British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said military planners from an unspecified number of countries will also plot ways to ensure security once fighting ends, including potential mine-clearing work and “reassurance” for commercial shipping.

No country appears willing to try to open the strait by force while the war is raging. French President Emmanuel Macron, while on a visit to South Korea, called a military operation to secure the waterway “unrealistic.”

But there is a concern that Iran might limit traffic through the waterway even after U.S. and Israeli attacks on it cease.

The idea of an international effort has echoes of the “coalition of the willing,” led by the U.K. and France, that was assembled to underpin Ukraine’s security in the event of a ceasefire in that war. The coalition is, in part, an attempt to demonstrate to Washington that Europe is doing more for its own security in the face of frequent criticism from Trump.

The conflict is driving up prices for oil and natural gas, roiling stock markets, pushing up the cost of gasoline and threatening to make a range of goods, including food, more expensive.

On Thursday, Brent crude, the international standard, rose again and was at $108 in spot trading, up about 50% from Feb. 28 when Israel and the U.S. started the war.

Though the oil and gas that typically transits the strait is primarily sold to Asian nations, Japan and South Korea were the only two countries from the region joining Thursday's call about the strait. The supply of jet fuel has also been interrupted by the conflict, with consequences for travel worldwide.

Weissert reported from Washington and Rising from Bangkok. Associated Press writer David McHugh in Frankfurt, Germany, contributed to this story.

Mourners gather during a funeral procession for Alireza Tangsiri, head of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy, and others killed in Israeli strikes in late March, in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

A firefighter extinguishes a car at the site of Israeli airstrikes, in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

People take cover in a bomb shelter as air raid sirens warn of incoming Iranian missile strikes in Bnei Brak, Israel, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Members from the Popular Mobilization Forces attend a funeral of fighters who were killed in a U.S. airstrike, in Tal Afar, Nineveh province, north of Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

Members from the Popular Mobilization Forces attend a funeral of fighters who were killed in a U.S. airstrike, in Tal Afar, Nineveh province, north of Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

The Indian flagged LPG carrier Jag Vasant transporting liquefied petroleum gas, is seen at the Mumbai Port in Mumbai, India, after it arrived clearing the Strait of Hormuz, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

President Donald Trump speaks about the Iran war from the Cross Hall of the White House on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)

President Donald Trump walks from the Blue Room to speak about the Iran war from the Cross Hall of the White House on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)

President Donald Trump speaks about the Iran war from the Cross Hall of the White House on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)

President Donald Trump speaks about the Iran war from the Cross Hall of the White House on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)