Wars, Conflicts and violence are increasingly becoming part of the norm of socio-political life in many African countries. The post-independence period in Africa saw the escalation of war and violence in many countries, both in terms of magnitude and intensity. Those conflicts are not only inter and intra-state, but have recently assumed a multilateral dimension, in which a multitude of countries are engaged in conflict within a country as it is currently in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Some have tagged the Congo war as Africa’s “First World War”.   From 1970, there has been no less than thirty wars fought in Africa, most of them intra-state in nature¹ . In 1994, out of a total of 48 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, no less than twelve countries were at war, while two were in the post-war phase, and fourteen had a recent or current experience of significantly high levels of political violence² . During 1994, a total of 28 countries, more than half of the continent in sub-Saharan Africa were or had recently been afflicted by serious political conflicts. In 1996, 12 countries were engaged in armed conflicts, and by 1999, the number increased to 18, with no less than 11 countries under severe political crises. In short, all African countries seem vulnerable to conflicts and wars, as the political economy of most of these states remain fragile and susceptible to potential conflict and breakdown³.

War and conflict continue to impose a heavy toll on African countries. Human capital is squandered, depreciated and dislodged, as productive young men and women are killed, decapacitated or made to become refugees through wars. For example, in 1996, armed conflicts in Africa accounted for half of war related deaths world wide, and resulted in more than 8 million refugees, returnees and displaced persons⁴ .  Conflicts further devalue Africa’s per capita income, with the continent qualified by the World Bank as the “poorest of the poor”.  Indeed, conflict is inimical to economic progress and social development.  

However, Africa is not alone in the war saga, although the dimension and intensity of it in Africa is more debilitating. The post cold war era has seen the intensification of conflicts in the World. Ethno-nationalism has gained a new lease of life, as group identities hitherto suppressed are reasserting themselves and reclaiming their rights in the polity. Between 1989 – 1998, there were 108 conflicts in the World, of which most of them were intra-state in nature and mostly identity driven⁵ . Indeed, for Samuel Huntington what is going to define conflicts in the world in the post-cold war era, would be a clash of identity and culture, what he aptly dubbed “the clash of civilisations”⁶.

The incident of conflicts in Africa has attracted the attention of scholars both within and outside Africa. Various approaches and explanatory variables have also been adopted to understand the phenomenon. These have ranged from the political perspective that emphasises issues like the struggle for power, the weak nature of the African State, ethnicity and militarisation⁷ . The economic approach touches on issues of poverty and material shortages to the recent, but questionable thesis of the World Bank on “greed” as the driving force of conflicts in Africa. The latter view seeks to simply criminalise conflicts in Africa and reinforce the western stereotype on Africa, as being a jungle, in which there is the “war of everyman against everyman”, and banditry being a way of life. This view of African conflicts is not only misleading, but also highly perverse, and does not grasp the basis of conflicts on the continent.

In this bulletin, our task is not to reproduce what has been done in the literature on conflicts in Africa.  What we set out to do, is to examine the technical areas of conflicts in Africa and question dominant orthodoxy.  The issues of small arms, military expenditure, the military and conflict and the role of civil society in conflict management and peace building, which constitute key strategic areas in African conflicts and the processes of their management are what we have focused on in this bulletin. In questioning dominant orthodoxy, two of this suffices for example. First there is an assumption that high military expenditure has a direct relationship with the incidence of conflicts in Africa. Wuyi Omitoogun refutes this assertion. He argues that there is no direct correlation between high defense expenditure and the emergence of conflict. Indeed, high military expenditure may serve social goals of employment creation in military service for a large number of citizens, especially when most of that defense expenditure is for recurrent expenditure of salaries and emolument of service men. It is only after the outbreak of conflict, that high military expenditure may be more directly linked to conflict, but the former is not likely to be the causal variable of the latter. Another dominant orthodoxy questioned is the role of civil society in conflict situations. Civil society is mostly viewed as an honest broker in conflict situations. Said Adejumobi argues that this need not necessarily be the case. The civil society can be part of the problem as well as the solution in conflict situations. It is therefore important to disaggregate and identity which civil society groups can play progressive and meaningful roles in the process of conflict resolution and peace building in Africa.

In putting together this bulletin, leading experts in the specific areas have been invited. All the contributors to this bulletin have been working on the issues discussed by them, for a length of time. They are young, but leading scholars on those issues. We hope the articles will stimulate further debate and provide a basis for public policies both at the national and international levels in order to bring the scourge of war to an end in Africa, and promote a new era of peace, security and development.

End Notes

1. See, Kofi Anaan,  “The Causes of Conflicts and the Promotion of Durable Peace and sustainable Development in Africa”, Report of the Secretary General to the UN Security Council, 52 Session, 1998.

2. Kristin Sanberg and Dan Smith, “Conflict in Africa”, Afrika Mellon Konfleter Og Utrking Inormsajonshefte 5, 1994. 

3. See, Said Adejumobi, “Citizenship, Rights and the Problem of Conflicts and Civil Wars in Africa”, Human Rights Quarterly, Vol. 23, No. 1, 2001, pp. 148-171. Adebayo Adedeji (ed.), Comprehending and Mastering African Conflicts: The Search for Sustainable Peace and Good Governance (London: Zed Books, 1999). 

4. Kofi Annan, (1999),

5. Wallestein and Margareta Sollenberg, “Armed Conflict”, Journal of Peace Research, Vol, 36, 1999.

6. Samuel Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the World Order. (New York: Touchstone, Rockefeller Centre, 1996).

7. See, Adejumobi, (2001), op. cit.

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