Mali: The great land grab in Mali

In the last six years, there has been a dramatic increase in foreign investment in land deals across Africa and the Malibya deal - a 50-year lease agreed by the Malian and Libyan Presidents - has become totemic of the fear that this new phenomenon of land grabbing will deprive subsistence farmers of their land and their food, reports The Guardian. Mali is one of the countries most affected by the scramble for land, and Segou, the country’s rice basket, is at the eye of the storm, with buyers from Senegal, South Africa, and Asia, as well as domestic companies snapping up leases on thousands of hectares.