Conflict in south sudan and the challenges ahead congressional research service summary south sudan, which separated from sudan in 2011 after almost 40 years of civil war, was drawn into a devastating new conflict in late 20, when a political dispute that overlapped with preexisting ethnic and political fault lines turned violent. Map scavenger hunt worksheet pdf the american civil war was fought from 1861 to 1865. Introduction to african politics ub12002602 what are the main causes of civil wars in africa. A civil war is an armed conflict that has 1 caused more than one thousand deaths. Sudans civil war, which raged from the 1980s until a peace deal was brokered in the early 2000s, marks the longest war ever to take place on the african continent. To promote intergroup cooperation in africa, specially tailored political governance and economic management institutions are needed and we advance some. The colonel eli lilly civil war museum, an indiana war memorials museum june, 2001 3 description of lessons the history of african americans in indiana during the civil war provides a rich insight into their contributions in the war efforts. Civil war timeline 1845frederick douglass publishes his autobiography 1861 march 4 lincoln becomes president april 12 attack on fort sumter july 21 battle of bull run, 1850harriet tubman makes first trip on underground railroad 1865 april 9 lees surrender at appomattox. However, the two modern trends of democracy and economic prosperity elude this region due in large part to persistent conflict and complex sociopolitical dynamics. Civil war, a violent conflict between a state and one or more organized nonstate actors in the states territory. Dec 08, 2009 armed conflict within nations has had disastrous humanitarian consequences throughout much of the world. Secondly, the paper discusses postconflict reconstruction in africa with a focus on its funding modalities. In this manner, liberia is anomaly case, akin in our dataset only to china during the civil war period the partition of india also resulted in two separate new regimes at the end of the atrocities period, but in terms of the central role played by a nonstate actor, china is the more salient parallel. Causes, impact and implications for the great lakes region executive summary the democratic republic of congo is recovering from conflicts, posting substantial improve ment in overall macroeconomic performance since the cessation of the war, on the back of robust copper and cobalt exports.
Central africa seem to have been immune from social tension and armed conflict. Abstract the two volumes of understanding civil war build upon the world banks prior research on conflict and violence, particularly on the work of paul collier and anke hoeffler, whose model of civil war onset has sparked much discussion on the relationship between conflict and development in what came to be known as the greed versus grievance debate. Jan 28, 2014 effect of the civil war and the role of librarian in post war reconstruction in sierra leone. The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region or to change government policies. Pdf causes of civil war in africa gavin raymond academia. Conflict trends in africa, 19462004 systemic peace.
It has been said that the 21st century will be recorded as the bloodiest of all centuries to date. Section 2 summarizes the theory of civil war onset and outlines our hypotheses. And rulers are significantly more likely to exclude their coconspirators the very friends and allies who helped them come to powerthan other included groups, but at the cost of increasing the risk of a future civil war with their former allies. First is africa s high dependence on natural resource exports which. During the past six decades, the african con tinent has seen some very severe civil wars. On the incidence of civil war in africa paul collier.
The last few decades saw the killing of 50,000 people in sierra leone, the genocide of thousands of people in rwanda and burundi, the race murder of hundreds of people in the democratic republic of congo and many more. International journal on world peace 1 keili, f l 2008. In 1856, a young xhosa girl, nongqawuse, thus had a prophetic vision from two strang ers from overseas of future redemption of her people. Civil war and violence in africa syllabus patrick johnston. Somalias defeat in the ogaden war strained the stability of the siad regime as the country faced a surge of clan pressures. Recent years have seen many regions of africa involved in war and internal or external conflict, from the seven or so countries directly involved in the democratic republic of congo drc to the sierra leone crisis and the war in ethiopiaeritrea and the various other civil wars. Violent conflicts of one type or another have afflicted africa and exacted a heavy toll on the continents. Causes of civil wars in africa essays and articles. In addition to aid from the us, unita was also supported by south africa. Since 1960, almost all civil wars have been in developing countries, whose economic growth and development are apt to be impeded by resulting human capital losses, reduced investments, infrastructure destruction, and marketactivity disruptions, stated todd sandler. Over the last 50 years, more than 20 countries on the. In the period between 1945 and 1999, of 127 civil wars. He finds that in africa ethnic exclusion substitutes civil war risk for coup risk. Hundreds and thousands of people have been slaughtered from a number of conflicts and civil wars.
Wars, or even the civil wars and atrocities in revolutionary russia and. Final research paper civil conflicts course civil war in mozambique 19791992 alberto inciarte 173816 introduction since independence from portugal in 1975, mozambique has been battered by civil war, economic mismanagement and famine1 the republic of mozambique is a southeast african country bordered by the indian ocean to the east, tanzania to the north, malawi and zambia to the. The sudan was the first african territory administered by britain to be granted independence after world war two. Jul 25, 2001 it has been said that the 21st century will be recorded as the bloodiest of all centuries to date. Causes and solutions the civil war in africa from that of ivory coast in 2004, that of chad in 2010 to that of libya 2011 are classical examples of the countless number of civil war in africa since 1962. Poverty and conflict are widely understood to be closely interconnected. This is a list of conflicts in africa arranged by country, both on the continent and associated islands, including wars between african nations, civil wars, and wars involving non african nations that took place within africa. Warming increases the risk of civil war in africa pnas. Olawale leave a comment the civil war in africa from that of ivory coast in 2004, that of chad in 2010 to that of libya 2011 are classical examples of the countless number of civil war in africa since 1962.
It started when most african countries were still under colonial rule, but heated up. Unita, however, secured foreign support and established itself as an effective guerrilla army. Many of the african conflicts of recent times in which millions have died whether it is the wars in the congo since 1997, the renewed civil war in angola, the interrelated conflicts in sierra leone, cote divoire, guinea and liberia have passed almost without notice under the. Spatial effects of civil wars in africa and around the world. The rwandan civil war 1 introduction rwanda is a small landlocked country in the great lakes region of eastcentral africa with a population of over ten million people in 2015 and is a former colony of belgium.
The roots of african conflicts ohio university press. In this video, crisis groups central africa project director thierry vircoulon explains how the intercommunal tensions between armed groups in car, which straddles the mainly muslim sahel and the predominantly christian central african savannah, is now compounded by an emerging conflict between armed communities. It started when most african countries were still under colonial rule, but heated up during decolonization and after independence. This set of lessons is designed to supplement the information provided in u. If this scale of destruction and fighting was in europe, then people would be calling it world war iii with the entire world rushing to report. Economic implications of civil wars in subsaharan africa and the.
It encompasses colonial wars, wars of independence, secessionist and separatist conflicts, major episodes of national violence riots, massacres, etc. In the absence of the conflict mitigating effects of a broadbased, proactive civil society with substantial stakes and personal interests. The sudans civil war, also the first in postcolonial africa, began, with the torit mutiny, a few months before independence was attained on 1 january 1956. Libyan civil war 2014date this is the second civil war in libya and it is an ongoing conflict among rival factions who are seeking to take control of the territory and crude oil of libya. They find that the high incidence of civil war in africa is due to three main factors, two of which are the same as those identified in collier and hoeffler 1998. Causes of the congolese civil wars and their implications for humanitarian assistance 5 chronic weakness of the postcolonial state in africa joined by a systematic lack of productive industries has perverted the state into a compensatory kind of enterprise. The collapse of the soviet union brought with it an influx of illegal weaponry and the weakening of many proxy states, leading to a spike in conflict in the early 1990s as. The cold war constituted the third imperial war of the twentieth century in which africa was implicated directly and indirectly, ideologically and militarily, politically and economically. Independence has been bunched in two big waves, the british and french decolonizations of africa in 196062 and the russian decolonization.
The civil war in rwanda is remembered for the events that took place in 1994, towards the end of the war. Civil war trends and the changing nature of armed conflict. A civil war, also known as an intrastate war in polemology, is a war between organized groups within the same state or country. First, is africa systematically different from other regions. Investigating the causes of civil wars in subsaharan africa case. The study of african civil wars has boomed since 2000 as scholars have recognized the predominance of internal wars over interstate wars in the postcold war context. Some econometric results 7 also, rebellions may occur when forgone income is unusually low and this can be proxied by mean income per capita, male secondary schooling, and the growth rate of the economy in the preceding period representing new income opportunities.
Small arms and light weapons transfer in west africa. Africa a land of beautiful and fascinating sceneries, a land of rich culture, a land where wild and untamed animals reside, a land blessed with natural resources but when someone talks about africa the first thing comes in mind is a battlefield, killing of innocent people, poverty, lack of food, dictatorship and above all the civil wars. On the incidence of civil war in africa paul collier, anke. Violent conflicts plaguing africa today are mostly civil wars with. Africa hardly attracts media attention despite pressing concerns.
Current conflicts in africa 2020 and examples information. The angolas civil war was an armed conflict that continued in the african nation for more than 26 years from 1975 to 2002, with brief periods of fragile peace the war erupts once angola becomes independent of portugal, being the last african colony to achieve its independence, starting within its territories a violent struggle for power. Some of the deadliest conflicts, such as the bi afran war in nigeria in. We show that the over the period 196599 the incidence of conflict in africa is wellexplained by a global model. Pdf contrary to popular belief, africas civil wars are not due to its ethnic and religious diversity.
There have been over 9 million refugees and internally displaced people from conflicts in africa. Abraham lincolns election in 1860 caused south carolina and eventually 10 other southern states to secede from the union as their leadership perceived lincoln to be an enemy of slavery. Here we undertake the first comprehensive examination of the potential impact of global climate change on armed conflict in subsaharan africa. Pdf civil war in mozambique alberto inciarte academia. Conflict and state security in the horn of africa 43 1981 to resist authoritarianism and brutality against the deprived people. We find strong historical linkages between civil war and temperature in africa, with warmer years leading to significant increases in the. The difficulties in the country were compounded in march 1991 when conflict in neighbouring liberia spilled over the border into sierra leone. Signing of the peace agreement between unita and the mpla, ending a 27year civil war in 2002 source. Listed below are the current wars and conflicts in the continent of africa. Understanding africas contemporary conflicts africa portal. Mozambique became independent after a long civil war against portuguese colonialism.
An abortive military coup in april 1978 paved the way for the formation of two opposition groups. The failure of the opposition to fill the power vacuum left behind by siad barre after his flight into exile in 1991 marked the beginning of disintegration of somalia. Subsaharan africa having at the back of its thoughts that civil wars are most times associated to political, economic and ethnic incentives. Results show that africa has had a similar incidence of civil conflict to other developing regions, and, with minor exceptions, its conflicts are consistent with the global pattern of behavior. An excellent compilation of some important case studies can be found in collier and sambanis 2005. The second part of the course investigates the causes of civil wars.
West africa has been grappling with violent conflicts and civil strife for decades, however, the periods between the 1980s and the 1990s leading to the new millennium presented more violent and protracted conflicts which destabilized many of its economies aning and bah 2009. One important way of approaching the issue is to look at what contemporary observers had to say. In doing so, it highlights some areas that will not be covered in much detail in the remainder of the course, such as religion, disease, and underdevelopment. The majority of the studies, however, examine the causes of civil war at the country level there is a large body of case studies, examining the causes of civil war for individual countries. Boko haram insurgency in nigeria 2009presentthe islamic fundamentalist group boko haram is waging a war against the nigerian government and against the christian community in nigeria. Civil wars are thus distinguished from interstate conflicts in which states fight other states, violent conflicts or riots not involving states sometimes labeled intercommunal conflicts, and state repression against individuals who cannot be considered an organized or. On the incidence of civil war in africa world bank. This is a list of conflicts in africa arranged by country, both on the continent and associated islands, including wars between african nations, civil wars, and wars involving nonafrican nations that took place within africa. Causes of the congolese civil wars and their implications. The causes and dynamics of conflict in subsaharan africa subsaharan africa is a vast land rich in natural resources with great potential for investment and opportunity. Momoh responded by deploying troops to the border region to repel the incursion of liberian rebels known as the national patriotic front of liberia npfl, led by charles taylor.
Central african republic civil war 2012present wikipedia. First, it updates previous quantitative studies of the evolution of civil war incidence in africa. Economic and political causes of civil wars in africa. Buttressing the latter is the example of west africas first republic state, liberia, where the country relapsed into a second civil war in 1999 after. Indeed, african countries remain highly dependent on agriculture for both employment and economic production. Pdf warming increases the risk of civil war in africa. The international criminal courts intervention into the ongoing civil war in northern uganda evoked a chorus of confident predictions as to its capacity to bring peace and justice to the wartorn region. Roughly 620,000 americans diedin the civil war, making it one of the. Main causes and consequences the angolas civil war was an armed conflict that continued in the african nation for more than 26 years from 1975 to. Her vision promised an expulsion of the whites from africa and future prosperity for the xhosa, if only they cleansed themselves of witchcraft by slaying their cattle.
Regional variations in three principal conflict trends are then presented for the central, east,west, and southern regions of. Though often absent from retellings of the cold war, the interventions and alliances conceived in southern africa between the 1960s and 1980s, had a profound and sometimes devastating impact. An econometric model of civil war is applied to the analysis of conflict in subsaharan africa. Armed conflict within nations has had disastrous humanitarian consequences throughout much of the world. Of these conflicts, 15 50 percent were in subsaharan africa ssa and 10 33.
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