Exploring the causes of armed conflict in Africa

In recent years, political disputes have triggered armed conflicts and vast population movements in Africa’s Great Lakes region. Recent research suggests that access to natural resources is both a cause of these conflicts and a factor in sustaining them. 

Research from the Africa Centre for Technology Studies, Kenya, examines the relationship between armed conflict and access to agricultural land. Studies in Rwanda, Burundi and eastern Democratic Republic of Congo show that changes in land use and land access are significant factors in armed conflicts. 

Limited access to land and unfair land distribution create patterns of economic domination, leading to social exclusion for poor, landless people. These conditions can create the deprivation and social tension that leads to violence. While these issues are not always the root cause of conflict, they are usually important in supporting and sustaining conflicts. The financial and political profits of natural resource extraction and distribution are used to purchase weapons and mobilise people and soldiers for war.

Wars have caused huge population displacements in the region, with many farmers fleeing as refugees. One result of this is that land ownership can become concentrated in the hands of wealthier urban-based elites, whilst the average land area owned by farmers is extremely small. Refugee repatriation also increases the risk of secondary conflicts over land after hostilities have ceased, while the HIV/AIDS epidemic has increased inequalities.

The research shows:

• AIDS-related illnesses and deaths result in changed land use patterns, including switching to less labour-intensive crops and reducing cultivation areas. 
• Many women and children have difficulties in claiming their land rights after the death of a male household head.
• The return of long-term refugees can pose a number of challenges, especially because the legal basis of land ownership is vague, land is scarce, and the state often lacks the financial capacity or political will to compensate those who lose access to land
• In Burundi, 90 percent of problems reported to non-governmental organisations by returning refugees concerned land.

What kind of policy reforms can address land issues effectively and prevent violence, both during and after conflict? Transitional governments formed after conflicts are often characterised by wide differences in development objectives, and cultural tensions remain high. More research is needed on the politics of policymaking in such difficult institutional environments.

The research recommends:

• New policies require careful estimation of financial costs and input from several disciplines, including social sciences.
• Whilst pilot projects are important for testing new ideas, land issues at national and regional levels cannot be addressed sufficiently by ‘projects’. They must be part of a long-term process of network building between local, national and international institutions.
• Civil society organisations can usefully be involved in developing and implementing policies, especially raising awareness of land issues, disseminating policy information and monitoring the social, economic and gender impacts of policies.
• Transparent multi-stakeholder dialogue within each country is necessary if post-conflict governance and land policies are to overcome the legacies of the past.

Source(s):
‘Conflict in the Great Lakes Region – how is it linked with land and migration?’ Overseas Development Institute (ODI) Natural Resource Perspectives No. 96, by Chris Huggins, Herman Musahara, Prisca Mbura Kamungi, Johnstone Summit Oketch and Koen Vlassenroot, 2005 Full document.
The ODI paper was a summary of several longer policy briefs, which are now available online: Full document.

Funded by: USAID

id21 Research Highlight: 23 November 2005

Further Information:
African Centre for Technology Studies
P.O. Box 45917
Nairobi
Kenya

Tel: +254 20 7224700
Fax: +254 20 7224701
Contact the contributor: acts@cgiar.org

Africa Centre for Technology Studies, Kenya

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