SIERRA LEONE — Transhumance tracking tool, Participatory presence mapping (February-March, 2022)

Falaba became a new district of Sierra Leone in 2016. The Faranah Prefecture is located immediately across the border in neighboring Guinea with Sierra Leone. Both areas are remote, hard-to-reach and sparsely populated, yet cross-border movement remains pronounced between these two locations. The district comprised mostly of cattle herding and farming as major economic and livelihood activities, and it is considered a rural district. Cross- border trade is also known of the district. In terms of the district ethnic composition, Mandigo, Fula, Yalunka and Kuranko are among the major tribes inhabiting the district, with Yalunka constituting the highest.

On the Guinea side the main ethnic groups represented are Djalonke, Kurankos, and Fulani, with the Kurankos and Yalunkas from the Sierra Leone side. The Fulani (Peulh) are semi-nomadic pastoralist people practicing free-range cattle herding. The other ethnic groups present in the regions on both sides are largely engaged in subsistence crop farming, cultivating rice, groundnut, hot pepper, and vegetables which is practiced by both men and women.

The border areas in Falaba and Faranah both attract a sizable volume of transhumance migration. With large mass of potential grazing land attainable, cattle herders are increasingly migrating from other districts in Sierra Leone and Guinea to Falaba. Concurrently, Faranah attracts herders from other Guinea’s prefectures and into Falaba in Sierra Leone for its grazing land.