SUMMARY

The Ma'aliyah and Zaghawa are two ethnic groups whose main livelihood is herding. In the case of Zaghawa camels are the main livestock and among the Ma'aliyah cattle is dominating. As herders they compete over the same subsistent resources such as land and water. All this is getting more complicated when droughts make different groups to move to new locations. The Zaghawa historical homeland is in northern Darfur and its there they have their Dar Zaghawa but some Zaghawa have moved southwards and this has created tension with other ethnic groups. The Zaghawa have been accused of not respecting historical ownership of the land and one of the groups that have been angry about this is the Ma'aliyah.

The non-state conflict between Ma'aliyah and Zaghawa is first included in UCDP data in 2008. In October that year clashes around Muhajiriya town resulted in more than 40 battle-related deaths.