151-172, https://doi.org/10.1080/17539153.2017.1347238. This chapter traces the history of violent conflicts in Africa and explores the nature and the types of violent conflicts common in Africa in the last sixty years, the patterns and trends of violent conflicts common in Africa and the ICCs interventions in conflict situations in Africa. [13] Gray,D. and K.Latour (2010), Terrorist black holes: Global regions shrouded in lawlessness. Non-state actors have also contributed to the regionalisation of conflict by relocating to other countries when pressured by counter-insurgency initiatives. [27] Kaldor,M. (2012), New & Old Wars : Organized Violence in a Global Era, Stanford University Press, Palo Alto. Women and children sleep in a makeshift hospital, Women and children sleep in a makeshift hospital erected at an AMISOM military camp to help those affected by recent flooding and clan conflict near Jowhar, Somalia, on November 12. ACLED data is publicly available. [61] Aydinli,E. The resolution, transformation and management of conflict First, having declined considerably from the early 1990s until 2010, the number of state-based armed conflicts in Africa has recently increased. Border barriers and the transnational flow of terrorist violence. The Lords Resistance Army (LRA) in Central Africa followed the same trend: historically based in northern Uganda, the group led by Joseph Kony started to extend its attacks to the DRC and the Central African Republic (CAR) in the late-2000s following a series of inconclusive joint military offensives undertaken by neighbouring countries (Schomerus, 2021[57]). 9 Freedom in the World 2017, Populists and Autocrats: The Dual Threat to Global Democracy (Washington DC: Freedom House, 2017), available at . [53] Thurston,A. 14 Oct 2020 Origin View original Download Report (PDF | 7.38 MB) Palik, Jlia; Siri Aas Rustad & Fredrik Methi (2020) Conflict Trends in Africa, 19892019, (2007), The transnational turn. Since much of the colonial revenue depended on import taxes, the sustainability of colonies relied on securing borders, fighting against smuggling, and redirecting regional flows toward the ports and railways built by the French or the British (Howard and Shain, 2005[1]). [39] Pisani,M., J.Reyes and B.Garca (2009), Looking back twentythree years: An analysis of contributors and contributions to the journal of borderlands studies, 1986 (volume 1, number 1) to 2008 (volume 23, number 2). [44] Walther,O. OECD iLibrary Evidence for the state power theory consists of cases like the Sahel, Central Africa and the Great Lakes Region, in which rebels, warlords, and extremist groups such as Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), Boko Haram or the Lords Resistance Army (LRA) have crossed boundaries to find safe havens when confronted with counterinsurgency initiatives. They failed to conquer Freetown in 1995 and fled to Liberia from where they continued to engage in smuggling, arms trafficking, and violence even after disarmament and peace accords in 2002 (Silberfein and Conteh, 2016[60]). 42/3, pp. 61/1, pp. [40] Makkonen,T. and A.Williams (2016), Border region studies: the structure of an offbeat field of regional studies. Such border conditions have typified much of the post-colonial period in Africa and have been linked to broader critiques of state development (Laremont, 2005[7]). Modern definitions of transnational conflict, violence or terrorism tend to combine these spatial and social components. Most of the recruits who joined Katibat Macina came from Kouffas Fulani ethnic group. Some interviewed jihadists have mentioned exploiting or capitalising on border porosity or lack of vigilance by claiming, you come, we go, you go, we come back. 13 United Nations, Report of the Joint African Union-United Nations Review of Available Mechanisms to Finance and Support African Union Peace Support Operations Authorized by the United Nations Security Council, UN document A/71/410S/2016/809, September 28, 2016, available at < http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/71/410>. Conflicts According to the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP), there have been an estimated 630 state-based and nonstate armed conflicts on the continent between 1990 and 2015.1 Explanations for this glut of armed conflicts in Africa remain the subject of debates.2 Nevertheless, between the early 1990s and the late 2000s, Africa underwent a period of significant progress in reducing the number and intensity of armed conflicts.3. Whose interpretation of events should be treated as authentic? ), Limited Statehood and Informal Governance in the Middle East and Africa, Routledge, https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429504570-10. [4] Carmignani,F. and P.Kler (2016), The geographical spillover of armed conflict in Sub-Saharan Africa. 133-154, https://doi.org/10.1080/03057070802685619. This shift in approach is particularly well represented in the border studies literature that initially focused on the United States-Mexico border in the 1980s and has, since then, expanded to cover most regions of the world (Parker and Vaughan-Williams, 2009[38]; Pisani, Reyes and Garca, 2009[39]; Makkonen and Williams, 2016[40]). [8] Dobler,G. (2016), The green, the grey and the blue: A typology of cross-border trade in Africa. [51] Harmon,S. (2014), Terror and Insurgency in the Sahara-Sahel Region : Corruption, Contraband, Jihad and the Mali War of 2012-2013, Routledge, https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315612096. The groups violent activity has declined sharply in all countries since the early 2010s, with only 46 violent events recorded in 2020, more than 10 times less than in 2002 (Figure2.1). [36] Rumford,C. (2012), Towards a multiperspectival study of borders, Geopolitics, Vol. 2. The increasingly transnational nature of conflict in North and State failure. According to Olaosebikan conflicts in Africa may be said to have been caused by a multiplicity of factors such as: arbitrary borders created by the colonial powers, heterogeneous ethnic composition of African states, inept political leadership, corruption, (ed.) Until recently, much of the literature on borders and conflict was state-centric and considered transnational actors through the prism of interstate relations or not at all (Box2.2). Indigenous Approaches to Conflict Resolution in Africa Note: The data pertaining to GSPC cover the period 1999-2006, AQIM: 2007-2017, Boko Haram and ISWAP: 2009-2021, Al Shabaab: 2006-2021. Finally, a fifth set of relatively novel developments concerns the increasing use of remote violence in some of Africas armed conflicts.31 Especially significant are the more frequent use of IEDs and suicide bombings by a variety of nonstate actors. [14] Department of State (2019), Country Reports on Terrorism 2019, Department of State, Washington D.C. [8] Dobler,G. (2016), The green, the grey and the blue: A typology of cross-border trade in Africa, The Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol. Conflict Trends in Africa, 19892019 - World | ReliefWeb These initiatives remain rare in West Africa, where most countries tend to avoid large-scale military operations across their borders and, instead, favour the establishment of joint military initiatives against insurgents. During the colonial period, borders helped elites project their political powers and establish a durable source of revenue. Conflict and Violence in Africa: Causes, Sources and Types One of the key contributions of this interdisciplinary approach has been to highlight the symbolic and identity-forming importance of international boundaries for those who live in borderlands and routinely cross borders (Scott, 2020[41]). [48] Radil,S., I.Irmischer and O.Walther (2021), Contextualizing the relationship between borderlands and political violence: A dynamic space-time analysis in North and West Africa. Peace operations since 2010 have come close to warfighting or crossed the line against particular spoiler groups in the Central African Republic (CAR), Cte dIvoire, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Mali, and Somalia, as have the multinational forces deployed in Central and West Africa against the Lords Resistance Army and Boko Haram respectively. 260 Fifth Ave., Bldg. [52] Alusala,N. (2019), Border fragility and the causes of war and conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in Moyo,I. and C.Nshimbo (eds.). Select one or more items in both lists to browse for the relevant content, Browse the selectedThemes and / or countries. The assumption that violent transnational actors frequently move across borders or retreat to cross-border safe havens implies they can do so easily. 80/4, pp. The number of African countries embroiled in violent conflict rose sharply in the 1960s, as groups contested the legitimacy of post Peace and Conflict in Africa, Then and Now. [6] Avdan,N. and C.Gelpi (2017), Do good fences make good neighbors? ACLED data is publicly available. The first point is that despite some important recent advances in data collectionmost notably in generating geo-referenced dataour collective knowledge about armed conflicts in Africa still rests upon weak foundations.4 Debate continues among the leading databases over what exactly should be counted as a relevant indicator of armed conflict, including whether to include nonviolent episodes or just events that produce fatalities.5 There is also the difficult problem of how to collect accurate and comprehensive information about organized violence on the continent, much of which takes place in extremely remote locations. [9] Radil,S., J.Pinos and T.Ptak (2021), Borders resurgent: Towards a post-Covid-19 global border regime?. 39 United Nations Environment ProgrammeUN Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the CongoOffice of the Special Envoy of the United Nations Secretary-General for the Great Lakes, Experts Background Report on Illegal Exploitation and Trade in Natural Resources Benefitting Organized Criminal Groups, April 15, 2015, available at . When the effect of a border is increased to be equivalent to 500 kilometres, locations clearly separate by country, which means that cross-border locations seem less similar, and locations within the same country, by contrast, seem more similar to one another. Meaning, Nature and Scope of Conflict in Nigerian Workplaces But the developments analyzed in this article should illustrate why this goal and deadline will not be met. [69] OECD/SWAC (2020), The Geography of Conflict in North and West Africa, West African Studies, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/02181039-en.
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