The skins are processed into leather,” explained Hamidou Diallo, permanent secretary of the Network of Pastoralists in Sahel and Africa in Burkina Faso. “It was around 2019 that I started hearing that large numbers of stolen cattle were being sold into Ghana,” Endinene recalled. If there are only 10-15 stolen cattle, he said, he will sell them either directly to local butchers, restaurant owners, or, less frequently, in nearby cattle markets. When asked whether buying stolen livestock contributes to the conflict in Burkina Faso, he reasoned that “the owners of these cattle have already been killed. Furthermore, the smuggling of stolen cattle into Ghana also facilitates local corruption.