The Effect of Armed Conflict on the Conduct of International Relations in Africa
Chapter One
Research Objectives
General Objective
The general objective of this study will be to assess Kenya‘s role in conflict management in the Horn of Africa sub-region with special reference to the Somalia and Sudanese international relations 2002 – 2005.
Specific Objectives
- To provide an overview of armed conflict in Africa.
- To critically analyze the role of armed conflict in the international relations between Somalia and Sudan.
- To analyze the impact of spillover conflict into Kenya from the conflict in the Horn of Africa
CHAPTER TWO
CONFLICT IN AFRICA: AN OVERVIEW
Introduction
Chapter one, which forms the basis of this research, introduced the study. It presented the statement of the problem, objectives, literature review and a theoretical framework from which hypotheses of the study are derived. It also looks at the research methodology.
Chapter two gives a general overview of armed conflict in Africa. It will also give an overview of armed conflict in Africa Eastern Africa. The chapter examines IGAD and conflict resolution in the Horn of Africa. It further discusses the role of Kenya in conflict Management at the Horn of African Region.
General Background: Conflict in Africa
Ethnic unrest and tension are prevalent in today‘s world. Newspapers and television are rife with stories about ethnic violence among the people of Africa, the Middle East, India, China, Srilanka, Ireland, etc. Many other societies in little danger of civil wars—such as the United States, Britain, Canada, most of the Western Europe, and Japan—are nevertheless torn by ethnic strife. In many ways they are more seriously divided along ethnic lines, marked by racial, lingual, religious, and national differences, than they were a generation ago. It has been noted that violent conflicts around the globe are increasingly based on ethnic divisions. Only a tiny proportion of wars now occur between states; the vast majorities are civil wars with ethnic dimensions.
Comprising the largest share of ex-colonial states of the world, Africa is caught up in a range of intra – to inter-state conflicts. Since independence, about one-third of the countries of Africa have experienced large-scale political violence or war. But not all African countries are affected to the same degree. In some African countries, a whole generation has never experienced peace since independence and has internalized war as a legitimate part of life. For instance, within only four decades time (i.e., between the 1960s and the 1990s), approximately 80 violent changes in government in the 48 subSaharan African countries took place. Strangely enough, Africa has seen over seventy coups in the last quarter of the 20th C30. Roughly in the same period, Africa has suffered the greatest number of armed armed conflicts in the world‖.
The Horn of Africa region is regarded as highly susceptible to conflicts, and is one of the most conflict-prone areas in the continent. The Horn is the sub-region of protracted conflict and instability. Over the past six decades there was no single year when the sub region had free from conflict. In the Horn, the conflicts that have occurred since 1960s have largely been internal. Border conflicts have been rare and most of the wars in this part of the continent during the last decades of the 20th C have been described in terms of ethnic conflicts. For example, the civic unrest in Darfur, the protracted war between Ethiopia and Eritrea (before its independence in 1993), ethnic violence in Kenya after the 2007 presidential election, among other, are some to mention.
CHAPTER THREE
KENYA’S ROLE IN CONFLICT MANAGEMENT IN THE HORN OF AFRICA
Introduction
Chapter two gave a general overview of armed conflict in Africa. It will also give an overview of armed conflict in Africa Eastern Africa. It will also examine IGAD and conflict resolution in the Horn of Africa. Further the study will discuss the role of Kenya in conflict Management at the Horn of African Region.
This chapter critically analyzes the role of Kenya in conflict management in the horn of
African sub-region with special reference to the Somalia and Sudanese international relations 2002 – 2005.
Role of Kenya in Sudan and Somalia international relationses
Kenya has suffered the brunt of instability in the region, notably the influx of hundreds of thousands of refugees as well as illegal arms. The characteristics of armed conflict in Africa made the development of peace and security mechanisms both more urgent and more difficult than in other regions of Africa. Inequitable sharing of national resources and lack of representation in the structures of government lay at the root of many of the internal conflicts. Large communities experienced economic marginalization and political exclusion, often mirroring ethnic, religious and racial or clan fault lines. Major change has taken place in Somalia since the release of this report in December 2006.
CHAPTER FOUR
THE IMPACT OF SPILL OVER CONFLICT INTO KENYA FROM THE
CONFLICT IN AFRICA
Introduction
Chapter three critically analyzed the role of Kenya in conflict management in the horn of African sub-region with special reference to the Somalia and Sudanese international relations 2002 – 2005. This chapter will discuss the impact of spillover armed conflicts into Kenya from the conflict in Africa. The chapter discusses the factors contributing to Armed conflicts in the Northern and North Eastern Regions of Kenya.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
This study aimed to assess the impact of armed armed conflicts in the horn of Africa with a special focus on of Kenya. The first objective of the study aimed to provide an overview of armed conflict in Somalia and Sudan: Drivers and Dynamics. The second objective aimed to critically analyze the role of Kenya in conflict management as it has been the main mediator in both Somalia and Sudan international relationses and the final objective aimed to analyze the impact of spill over conflict into Kenya from the conflict in Africa.
Summary
Chapter two gave an general overview of armed conflict in Africa Eastern Africa. It also examined IGAD and conflict resolution in the Horn of Africa and discussed the role of Kenya in conflict Management at the Horn of African Region. It was noted at the end of the chapter that the Horn of Africa region is regarded as highly susceptible to conflicts, and is one of the most conflict-prone areas in the continent. The Horn is the sub-region of protracted conflict and instability. Over the past six decades there was no single year when the sub region had free from conflict. The next chapter seeks to give some historical insight into the manifest and latent causes of the Somalia and North-South conflict in Sudan as well as the series of events that ushered-in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement; and actors and provisions.
Chapter three critically analyzed the role of Kenya in conflict management in the horn of African sub-region with special reference to the Somalia and Sudanese international relations 2002 – 2005.It was noted that Kenya has played a major role in conflict management in Sudan and Somalia. This has been in the form of provision of human resources as well as well as the undertaking of mediation processes.
This chapter four discussed the impact of spillover armed conflicts into Kenya from the conflict in Africa. The chapter further discussed the factors contributing to armed conflicts in the Northern and North Eastern Regions of Kenya. It was established that as a result of the spillover conflicts, the human security situation is in the Northern part of Kenya has deteriorated. In the North-Rift and North-Eastern region of Kenya, conflicts have resulted to increased levels of poverty with more than three-quarters of the population living below the poverty line. Spill over conflicts have also resulted to the displacement of population in the Northern Kenya with more and more residents being forced to move from their homes because of life threatening reasons; with some of the reasons being natural or manmade disasters such as political persecutions and human rights violation.
Conclusions
The resolution and management of armed armed conflicts in the horn of Africa has posed a major challenge to regional organizations, states, regional and the international community. The armed conflicts in the Northern Region of Kenya are no exception. These conflicts are mainly concentrated in the boarders of Soamlia nad Sudan and also involve pastoralists. In recent times conflicts between host and refugee communities and within the community itself over the management of natural resources has span over time. There have been numerous attempts made by the government of Kenya to resolve these conflicts. Policies papers and documents have been written and revised, conventions have been held, but the major problem lies on the implementation of the various resolutions. The International Community too has been actively involved in seeing that the quality of life of those affected by these armed conflicts in Northern Kenya is improved. The inflow of humanitarian/development assistance is something worth mentioning.
In spite of the inflow of resources from the international community for the resolution the conflict and consequent development in the Horn of Africa, the results are very minimal as compared to the resources tailored for its development. So the question is; if all these attempts to resolve the conflict and develop this region have proved to be ineffective, what are the ultimate measures which could be adopted for the resolution and management of armed conflicts, likewise the development of area to improve livelihood patterns?
The recognition of armed conflict resolution and management in the Horn of Africa is lacking and the states in the region have not come out with detail policy document which can effectively tackle conflict in the region, beginning from the root causes of the various conflicts, how it evolved, and parties‘ concerned, attempted measures to resolve these conflicts, etc. On the other hand, the international community is not more concerned with how to punish the perpetrators of these conflicts. A regional policy has also not been adopted for the resolution and management of armed armed conflicts in the Horn of Africa. As a result, the states cannot adequately facilitate the control of certain pertinent issues directly or indirectly related to conflict management in the region.
The humanitarian/development aid provided by the international community has gone a long way to improve on the lives of stakeholder‗s community in Northern Kenya. The humanitarian/development aid has increase dependency, laziness and in some cases conflicts between the refugee and host community especially in the Northern Kenya. This is mainly because finances have been channel through wrong sources and also directed to wrong projects with limited follow-up. It is worthwhile mentioning here that most of the projects in Northern Kenya are concentrated on relief and especially in the refugee camps. The few developmental projects in the host community are generally not sustainable, with little or no proper methods of monitoring and evaluation.
The key issue why development in the Horn of Africa is not proportionate to the resources geared towards its development is because the projects are misdirected with little or no involvement of stakeholders directly affected by these conflicts. By so doing these projects have always failed because there is no sense of ownership of the projects by the communities involved because they consider them foreign.
Recommendations
Regional bodies and institutions in the Horn of Africa need to play a significant role as platforms for interstate collaboration on security issues and conflict management. Protracted conflicts, regional insurgencies, and cross border criminality stress border and national-level response systems, and regional organizations should be considered very essential for monitoring, prevention, and cross border response mechanisms. The intergovernmental relations must be improved across the region, particularly between Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, and South Sudan, and provide new opportunities for conflict management.
The most important aspect of regional conflict mitigation mechanisms in the Horn of Africa should be the growing region-wide commitment to managing conflict and instability along borders. This must be combined with some hopeful signs of improved levels of trust and cooperation between regional states in order to maintain support for existing regional institutions engaged in conflict early warning and mitigation.
Regional organizations must expand their existing cross border peace-building programs along the Somali-Kenya border. The organizations must have programs with components designed to strengthen all three pillars of borderland governance and conflict mitigation in the Horn of Africa to actively foster and routinize cooperation between these three pillars.
The Peace II model along the Somali-Kenya border builds on the highly successful work of USAID in northern Kenya since the late 1990s, in support of local civic peace builders. Peace II has effectively expanded and refined that model and has built a strong network of civic conflict management along the border. It has also advanced a peace dividend approach along the border, encouraging shared use of valuable services (schools, health posts, markets) across the border. Southern Somalia is now in the midst of major political changes: the rollback of AlShabaab in border areas, and the end of the transitional government. This is a period when effective borderland governance needs continued support. The study recommends, as a result, that the Peace II project be extended along the Somali–Kenya border.
The study also recommends that the Peace II model be extended across other parts of the Horn of Africa and possibly along the Ethiopia-South Sudan and the Sudan-South Sudan borders wherever local and central governments are amenable and as far as budgetary constraints will allow. The model may require adaptation in Ethiopian border areas due to restrictions on Ethiopian civic organizations, but this has already been managed with the CEWERUs.
Finally, there must be continued and carefully calibrated support to the CEWARN system mechanism in IGAD. Despite frustration with some aspects of CEWARN‗s
performance, it remains an essential pillar of borderland peace building, and continued support to CEWARN is important to regional states such as Ethiopia. Also, there should be more attention and resources on specific capacity-building initiatives to strengthen monitoring and reporting mechanisms as well as systematic dissemination of this information to key stakeholders and groups responsible for border conflict prevention and management.
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