CLIMATE CHANGE, RESOURCE STRUGGLES, AND WARFARE IN CONTEMPORARY AFRICA

Abstract

Africa is a continent that is changing quickly. Many people still consider it to be an odd area that is encrusted with tales and legends, though. This paper aims to educate the reader about Africa, with an emphasis on the security challenges facing the continent in the twenty-first century. Since there are 54 countries in Africa, making broad generalisations is challenging and potentially harmful. Africa includes South Africa, a certified member of the BRICS, as well as fragile and developing governments. However, all 54 nations are members of the African Union (AU). The majority are the offspring of the 1884–1885 Berlin Conference, and nearly all were colonised by European countries. In actuality, the political landscape of Africa is nearly identical to that of the late 1950s and early 1960s, when the majority of its nations gained their independence. The nations on the continent have faced numerous similar difficulties since the conclusion of the Cold War. The start of the twenty-first century was not good. According to the 2005 Peace and Conflict ledger, 31 of 161 countries—17 of which were in Africa—were at risk of a major conflict. Africa is home to more U.N. peacekeeping forces than any other continent. Seven of the world's fourteen main conflicts around the start of the century occurred in Africa. Since 1960, at least 32 African nations have seen at least one instance of non-separatist civil war. The majority of the world's conflicts take place there. This paper investigates the different connections between African security and insecurity challenges and the environment. The conceptual change around security and human security will be quickly summarised, followed by a discussion of the looming environmental problems that some people believe Africa is experiencing. The focus of this paper then shifts to the various ways that observers have asserted and denied links between conflict and the African environment. It goes on to discuss why African combat has changed so drastically in such a short amount of time. This paper examines the unique aspects of modern African warfare. This analysis of the social and political factors that influence the nature of these conflicts illuminates the connections between the politics of conflict areas and the methods used by armed group leaders to establish their objectives, find allies, and organise and maintain their combatants. This paper's most important finding is the increasing prominence of patronage politics as a key element of the explanation for change, both in the armed groups that challenge the state's authorities and in the elite coalitions that control it. This argument serves as the foundation for the subsequent section, which looks more closely at recent and ongoing conflicts to show how patronage politics truly influence warfare in Africa, despite the involvement of many other goals and motivations at the individual, armed group, and community levels. The future of conflict in Africa is examined in the last part. That part examines whether current trends can be sustained and looks for innovative approaches to combat that could portend broader change.