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- Convenors:
-
Gordon Crawford
(Coventry University)
Zainab Mai-Bornu (University of Leicester)
James Kewir Kiven (African Leadership Centre Trust, Nairobi, Kenya)
Nancy Annan (Coventry University)
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- Discussant:
-
Andreas Mehler
(Arnold Bergstraesser Institute)
- Format:
- Panel
- Stream:
- Perspectives on current crises
- Location:
- H23 (RW II)
- Sessions:
- Wednesday 2 October, -, -
Time zone: Europe/Berlin
Short Abstract:
This panel provides space for discussion and analysis of the root causes of current armed conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa and ways to promote just and equitable solutions. It is especially interested in research that highlights the perspectives and knowledge of civilians most-affected by conflict.
Long Abstract:
Civil war and other forms of local conflict continue to afflict many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, with devastating consequences for civilian populations. Causes vary from local to global, and often a combination. For instance, global crises have deepened socio-economic inequalities and intensified forms of exclusion, leading to increasing occurrences of armed conflict within countries. Current conflicts take various forms, including Islamist militancy in the Sahel region, pastoralist-based conflicts across West Africa, civil war in Sudan and Cameroon, and protracted conflicts in DR Congo. Invariably it is civilians who suffer most, especially the poorest and most vulnerable, with forced displacement, loss of livelihoods, human rights violations, sexual and gender-based violence, as well as deaths and injuries. This panel invites papers that focus on the causes of contemporary armed conflicts, the impacts on civilian populations, and the responses by domestic and international actors to mitigate adverse effects and seek conflict resolution. The panel welcomes papers from various disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives. In terms of the ‘experts’ in this field and their 'influence', we are particularly interested in research that highlights the perspectives and local knowledge of people most-affected by conflict, notably women, and inclusive of their agency in responding to its impact and seeking conflict resolution. It welcomes papers based on data generated from various research methods, including creative, participatory and arts-based ones. The panel seeks to provide space for discussion and analysis of the root causes of current armed conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa and ways to promote just and equitable solutions.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Wednesday 2 October, 2024, -Paper short abstract:
This paper examines the escalating violence and insecurity across communities in northern Nigeria. Banditry, kidnapping, Boko Haram and farmer-herder conflicts occur to varying degrees. It stresses the need for applying decolonial methodologies in analysing the impact of these conflicts on women.
Paper long abstract:
The UK and Nigerian national agendas relating to women, security and peace (reflecting UN Sustainable Development Goals (Resolution 1325) emphasise the importance of women in development, security, peace, and conflict resolution. This is set against, escalating violent conflict and insecurity across states and communities in Nigeria. Banditry, kidnapping, cultism, armed robbery, indigenous-settler disputes, intra- and intergroup conflicts, and farmer-herder conflicts occur to varying degrees across the country. Women are disproportionately impacted by these violent acts and yet excluded from decisions regarding the prevention and management of such conflicts. Despite local initiatives, policy and practice remain sub-optimal because, whilst women are present in the peacebuilding work of non-governmental organizations, cultural and government institutions continue to marginalize them through gendered patriarchal institutional and societal power relations. The question of how to secure opportunities and capacity building for women still needs to be resolved. This paper stresses the need for applying decolonial methodologies in analysing the impact of these conflicts on women in Northern Nigeria.
The conclusion will show that the coloniality of power, knowledge and being clearly occupies most narratives about the local women in Northern Nigeria and therefore in need of decolonization. Proper consideration must be given to the narratives and perspectives of the local women themselves in other to create a balanced platform of exchange.
Paper short abstract:
This study explores challenges of Ntumbaw/Njirong women in Cameroon due to Anglophone conflict and land disputes in the Mbaw Plain. It examines the impact, coping mechanisms, and their role in conflict resolution.
Paper long abstract:
This paper explores the dual crises faced by the Ntumbaw/Njirong women in Cameroon, who deal with the Anglophone conflict and land disputes in the Mbaw plain. The ongoing conflict between the Cameroon Armed Forces and ‘Ambazonian’ separatist rebel groups has intensified pre-existing tensions, including land disputes. The Ntumbaw and Njirong villages, part of the Wimbum community, in the North West Region of Cameroon have been in a dispute over Land in the Mbaw area since 1974, disrupting social, economic, and spiritual relationships. Amidst this, the Ntumbaw women, already marginalized by traditional gender ideologies, face increased hardships. This study aims to explore the impact of these crises on the Ntumbaw/Njirong women, their coping mechanisms, and their role in conflict resolution. It also seeks to understand the broader implications of these crises for gender equality, social cohesion, and peacebuilding in the region. The findings provide valuable insights into the importance of recognizing and addressing the unique challenges women face in conflict zones, particularly those dealing with other forms of social and economic strife and highlighting the need for sustainable solutions to complex social issues. This paper is based on qualitative data collected through interviews and guided discussion from 2021 to 2023.
Keywords: Gender, Conflict, hardship.
Paper short abstract:
This study examines the persistence of rural banditry in northwestern Nigeria, its impact on local populations, and their coping mechanisms. Despite state efforts, banditry remains a significant security threat, fueled by ungoverned spaces.
Paper long abstract:
This study interrogates the specter of rural banditry in northwestern Nigeria and the coping strategies by the people in the affected areas. It argues that banditry has emerged as one of the gravest security threats in Nigeria, in terms of intensity of violence and disruptive impact on the citizens. Due to state absence, collections of various criminal groups emerged to inflict violence on hapless fellow locals through kidnap-for-ransom, taxation, armed robbery, cattle rustling, rape, pillage and attacks on traders, farmers, and travelers. Though the locals and government have responded through formation of vigilante groups and deployment of troops, yet the problem is far from being over. And this triggers some pertinent questions: what accounts for the resilience of banditry in the rural areas of northwestern Nigeria? How do the people cope with the menace? What can be done? Based on primary data gathered through personal interviews with selected people in some affected areas of northwestern Nigeria, the study interrogates the foregoing questions. It is erected on the theory of ungoverned spaces and findings show the presence of ungoverned spaces as a major contributor to the emergence and resilience of banditry in the rural areas. Following inability of the state to come to their rescue, the people have adopted several coping methods including relocation to urban areas and payment of ransoms and taxes imposed by the bandits in order to stay alive. The study recommends kinetic and non-kinetic strategies as a way of dealing with the menace.
Paper short abstract:
The Tuareg insurgencies in Northern Mali is often rationalized in terms of exclusion and marginalization. This study explores the role of Identity and Territorialization as alternative factors triggering and energizing the Tuareg rebellions in Mali and their implications for regional security.
Paper long abstract:
Armed rebellion occasioned by the activities of rebel groups pose a significant danger to human security and nation-building. Prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa and typical of this is the Tuareg rebellion in Mali. Existing studies have discussed the probable causes of the Tuareg rebellion from narrow standpoints. This justifies the need for broader engagement. Using secondary and primary sources, including interviews with key Tuareg leaders, government officials, the United Nations and African Union Missions, this study explores alternative factors that trigger and energize the Tuareg rebellions in Mali and their implications for regional security. This study argues that, given that the Tuareg are Berbers adhering mostly to a nomadic pastoralist lifestyle, the battle for their identity and campaign to geographically territorialize this identity in the State of Azawad in the face of opposition by the Malian state, is a plausible alternative explanation for their persistent and obstinate rebellion against the Malian government. Furthermore, the lack of understanding of these aspirations and continuous state-sponsored violence against the Tuaregs has resulted in many fleeing to neighbouring sub-Saharan countries with implications for security in the region. This has increased armed conflict and occupation of ungoverned spaces by criminal syndicates promoting transnational crime and worsening the already precarious state of human security, fueling insurgency and incidence of terrorism. This study concludes that there is compelling need for the Malian government to revisit several peace deals with the Tuareg and promote inclusive governance as a crucial step to de-escalating violence and breaking the cycle of insurgency.
Paper short abstract:
This paper investigates local initiatives of unarmed civilian protection (UCP) in Cameroon's Anglophone conflict. It draws on findings from our research in Cameroon, highlighting some of the community-led unarmed civilian self-protection strategies and their accompanying challenges.
Paper long abstract:
This paper investigates community-led initiatives of unarmed civilian protection (UCP) in the ‘Anglophone conflict’ in Cameroon, now in its seventh year. While much work on UCP has focused on the role of external actors, this research highlights grassroots efforts of civilian self-protection that involve vulnerable civilians’ own agency. The Anglophone conflict in Cameroon is a civil war between state security forces and armed separatist groups fighting for an independent republic of Ambazonia in the Northwest and Southwest regions, the former British Southern Cameroons. The armed separatist groups are based in the rural areas where the military undertakes a counterinsurgency campaign. Rural residents in the conflict zones are hugely affected, with over 200 villages razed, more than 6000 deaths and over one million people displaced since the conflict began. Subjected to violence from both warring parties, though predominantly from the military, civilians have been pro-active and resourceful in devising ways to protect each other, inclusive of non-verbal communication, direct negotiation, spontaneous strategies, and early warning mechanisms. The role of women’s groups is especially significant. The paper contributes to knowledge on informal and innovative grassroots measures of civilian self-protection by drawing on findings from our research in Cameroon in 2023, highlighting some of the community-led unarmed civilian protection strategies and their accompanying challenges.
Paper short abstract:
This paper explains strategies developed by wartime rape survivors who have children born of rape to transcend long-lasting trauma affecting social reintegration complexified by the dynamism of cultural tensions against children identity,a serious concern against mothers sociopsychological stability
Paper long abstract:
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has seen a protracted war that has ripped apart relationships, making it difficult for rape survivors to move past their trauma and reintegrate into their local communities. Without classifying them, several academics have concentrated on the process of their recovery in general. Factors of long-lasting trauma affecting social reintegration of rape survivors impregnated by foreign rebels, and having children born of wartime rape, dynamism of cultural and relational tensions caused by the identity of children born of rape, which constitutes a serious concern against their mothers; and self-strategies developed by mothers to overcome those challenges have received little attention.
This paper aims to explain the causes of persistent trauma effects on the social reintegration of rape survivors, which are complexified by the burden of their traumatised offspring who are excluded from society and the coping mechanisms they have developed to deal with it. The findings of the study indicate that the severe mistreatment of children born of rape, which is justified by customary practices, has an impact on the mothers' ability to heal and reintegrate into society. Mothers have devised relational, physical, mental, spiritual, and sociocultural strategies to help them overcome the circumstances and defeat the established system that is patriarchal and patrilineal to ensure their sociopsychological stability.
To gather and examine the data, we used a qualitative approach. The population consists of wartime rape survivors having children born of rape, impregnated by foreign rebels; traditional and community leaders, located in eastern DRC.
Paper short abstract:
This paper discusses the root causes of current armed banditry and kidnapping in Katsina with emphasis on Dutsen-Ma, as one of the most affected Local Government Area in the state. The paper highlights the impacts of these crimes on women and children as the most affected civilians.
Paper long abstract:
Armed banditry and kidnapping are the two major security challenges disturbing Northern parts of Nigeria. The genesis of such crimes started as herder-farmer conflicts but later metamorphoses to kidnap for ransom, extortion, murder, cattle rustling and rape. These crimes could be attributed to bad governance, poverty, unemployment, economic instability, corruption, political instability, civil unrest and illiteracy. Armed banditry and kidnapping has become an event of daily occurrences in Northern Nigeria and poses a security threat to the nation. This paper explores the impact of armed banditry and kidnapping on women, young girls and children in Dutsen-Ma, as one of the most affected Local Government Area of Katsina State. The menace of such criminalities led to rape, forced displacements, trauma, discontinuation of education, economic hardship and loss of lives. It is also found that on daily basis, every evening, young girls,women and children who are the main target of these criminals have to abandon their homes and trek to the neighbouring villages seeking shelter, all in an attempt to avoid apprehension by bandits, only to return home the next morning. This has been the daily routine among the people of Dutsen-Ma community.