August 2014: International Appeal by the European section of Afrique-Europe-Interact

Early 2013 Mali briefly made international headlines. Islamic militia occupied the North of the country, an international military intervention headed by France followed, and bigger cities such as Timbuktu and Gao could be liberated. Still, for the bulk of the population life has hardly changed – neither in the North nor in other parts of the country. The social situation of small farmers, which make up about 75 per cent of the population, is particularly disastrous. Typical examples are the villages Sanamadougou and Sahou, 270 kilometres north east of the capital Bamako. As little ago as 2009 these villages donated 40 tons of millet to the Mali government to alleviate a national food crisis. Today, they are dependent on food donations themselves, because the global booming sale of fertile forests, farmlands and pastures to investment fonds, banks and corporations have caused violent eviction in Sanamadougou and Sahou also.

We, women and men peasants, pastoralists, indigenous peoples and their allies, who gathered together in Nyeleni from 17-19 November 2011, have come from across the world for the first time to share with each other our experiences and struggles against land-grabbing. One year ago we supported the Kolongo Appeal from peasant organizations in Mali, who have taken the lead in organising local resistance to the take-over of peasants' lands in Africa. Now we came to Nyeleni in response to the Dakar Appeal, which calls for a global alliance against land-grabbing. For we are determined to defend food sovereignty, the commons and the rights of small scale food providers to natural resources.

Explanatory note

We all have the duty to resist land grabbing and to support the communities fighting for their dignity! Undoubtedly, land grabbing was one of the main axes of mobilization during the last World Social Forum (WSF) in Dakar. Various social movements, faith-based groups, environmental, development and human rights organizations organized a series of events revolving around this issue.

KOLONGO APPEAL

We, the farmers belonging to the Collective of Farmer Organisations and the Coalition of the Forum of Civil Society Organisations, having come from every administrative region of Mali, and having met on 20 November 2010 at the Kologontomo Forum on agricultural land grabs in Mali, launch the following appeal: