Critically discuss the impact of wars and conflicts on Africa’s socio-economic

development

Introduction

Violent conflicts of one type or another have afflicted Africa and exacted a heavy toll on the
continent’s societies, polities and economies, robbing them of their developmental potential
and democratic possibilities. The causes of the conflicts are as complex as the challenges of
resolving them are difficult. Africa has a long history of colonial violence in the form of slave
trading, slave labour, plantation labour, plantation terror and a violent gun culture. African
conflicts have complex histories; they exhibit multiple and multidimensional causes, courses
and consequences. In this presentation the presenter will define key terms, discuss the impact
of wars and conflicts on Africa’s socio economic development and a conclusion will be
drawn.

Definition of key terms

Conflict

According to Collins (2010) conflict is a particular relationship between states or rival

factions within a state which implies subjective hostilities or tension manifested in subjective
economic or military hostilities. Therefore conflict is

Body

The unending political tensions, wars and conflicts in the continent have had lasting negative
impact on the socio- economic development of Africa because socio- economic development
cannot be sustained in an environment riddled with violence, instability and insecurity
(Benassy-Quere et al, 2007). Problem of reconstruction this is perhaps the most debilitating
impact of wars and conflicts on Africa’s development. All countries coming out of conflict
face major challenges of reconstruction in order to avoid a recurrence to violence. It is
needles to state that during war times, infrastructural facilities are wantonly destroyed while
loyalty, patriotism and mutual relations are broken between hitherto friendly peoples and
nations. Such broken relationships must be mended to ensure lasting peace between
belligerent groups while the destroyed facilities are to be replaced. It is worthy of note that
this amounts to a total waste of material resources and unnecessary dissipation of energy on
unproductive ventures. This has been the general trend of events in Africa and has been
retarding growth and development in the region (Bandyopadhyay et al 2014).
Unemployment: Wars and conflicts in Africa have combined to compound the problem of
unemployment in the continent. Today, throughout Africa, high rate of unemployment,
particularly of youths, is a major source of concern. It has been growing at an annual rate of
10%. In countries coming out of conflict, many young people not only lack employment; they
have also been denied education and economic empowerment because of war. It is instructive
to note that without other means of economic support, there is a danger that unemployed
former combatants will engage in criminal behaviour, especially with the many small arms in
circulation in war- torn countries.

Death and loss of lives: A great number of Africans: young, old, male, female, civilians and
military men alike, have lost their lives to various wars and conflicts on the continent. For
instance, in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda,(Global coalition 2004) in Azar (2009) about
800,000 Rwandans were reportedly massacred. Similarly, the Burundi civil war claimed over
200,000 lives as at the year 2000,. In Liberia, over 250, 000 lives were lost in the country’s
fourteen year civil war between 1990 and 2004. The same may also be said of Sierra Leone in
which an estimated 200, 000 people were killed during the nation’s civil war between 1991
and 2001. But perhaps the most pathetic situation occurred in Sudan. The civil war in Sudan
has been one of the longest and costliest on the continent with an estimated two million lives
lost to the war (Alabi, 2006).

Adeyemo (2000) provides a global panel data set of battle deaths. They define battle deaths
as deaths due to military operations; this includes military as well as civilian fatalities.
However, as they point out battle deaths are only part of the total war deaths. In addition to
soldiers and civilians being killed in battle there are non-battle deaths which comprise of (1)
an increase in one sided violence, (2) an increase in crime and unorganised violence and (3)
in an increase in non-violent mortality (diseases). It is disheartening to note that this
unprecedented loss of lives in Africa as a result of wars and conflicts is having debilitating
impact on human resources available to Africa. The services of the departed souls whom God
has endowed with great skills, talents and potentials are no longer available to be harnessed
for Africa’s development. Refugee problem: One of the attendant effects of wars and
conflicts in Africa is the emergence of numerous numbers of displaced persons who have
become refugee in different nations across the continent (Barkindo et al, 1994). It is sad to
note that violence and lawlessness have caused a severe humanitarian crisis in Africa as many
displaced people are now spread throughout the continent. For instance, in Liberia, the 2004
Report of the Global Coalition for Africa (2004:8) in Azar (2009) noted that an estimated
700,000 were internally displaced as at 2003. The spill- over effects of the Liberian conflicts
were felt in neighbouring countries through increased refuges flows. About 3000 Liberians
were hosted by Nigeria at the height of the crisis while an appreciable number of them also
became refuge in Guinea. In Sudan, an estimated 4.7 million Sudanese were displaced during
the nation’s prolonged civil war. As at 2004, the total number of African refugees was put
between 15 and 20 million (Alabi, 2006). They became refugees in neighbouring countries in
the region. As refugee, the affected persons have been exposed to serious risks of diseases
and hunger. In 2006 the UNHCR listed about 33 million people of concern globally. The
indirect effects of conflict are likely to be much greater than the direct effects. Civil wars
displace large populations, and their temporary accommodation often exposes them to new
risk factors. As noted Adedeji (1999 p.192), “epidemic diseases—tuberculosis, measles,
pneumonia, cholera, typhoid, paratyphoid, and dysentery—are likely to emerge from
crowding, bad water, and poor sanitation in camps, while malnutrition and stress compromise
people’s immune systems. Epidemiological research shows that disease, and especially
diarrhoea, has a greater effect on mortality rates than direct battle deaths.

These people of concern are defined in three broad categories, about 10 million refugees, 13
million internally displaced persons and about 10 million others (asylum seekers, returned
refugees and stateless persons). Poverty: Continued strife and political instability in most
countries of Africa hurt the continent’s economic fortunes. Indeed, the disruptive impact of
war and crisis on the economy of Africa has been considerable. The political stalemate and
periodic eruptions of violence have resulted in significant cumulative declines in Gross
Domestic Product (GDP).Legacy effects:

Wars affect peoples’ lives long after the fighting has stopped. Wars do not only kill but they
also cause disability due to injury or increased disease burden. In addition to physical
diseases war leaves people traumatised. Most of the victims of civil war are civilians and they
are subjected to or witness war-related traumatic events such as shootings, killings, rape,
torture and loss of family members. A random household survey of residents and internally
displaced persons in Freetown in 1999 showed that almost every respondent was exposed to
conflict. War ruins a country’s economy, including the health sector. Devastated by the war
the post conflict government has got insufficient revenues to spend on the health sector which
faces enormous demand. At the same time donors are often reluctant to fund improvements in
the health sector before they can be certain that peace can be sustained. Arellano and Bover
(1995) provide an overview of Burundi’s health sector post-conflict. Maternal mortality rates
are at 1,000 per 100,000 live births and infant mortality at 114 per live births. These rates are
among the highest in Africa. Other diseases, such as malaria, diarrhoea, pneumonia and
HIV/AIDS have claimed 300,000 lives since 2003.

The persistence of the post-independent conflicts emanating from political struggles

degenerated to series of military coups and counter-coups that were later to characterize
Africa’s independent states. The coups, according to Adeyemo (2000), were 'often only the
beginning of a long internal conflict, and led to counter-coups or a succession of coups as in
Nigeria.

As would be expected, the socioeconomic implications of such conflicts are felt more in
terms of their tendencies to disrupt the functioning of the society by causing widespread
human, material or environmental losses that exceed the ability of the affected society to cope
using its own resource; to cause injuries capable of rendering erstwhile productive population
to a dependent population, increase the population of refugees and displaced persons, and to
lead to widespread human rights abuses. By disrupting production, also, armed conflicts
induce scarcity, raise prices of basic goods and services and induce a decline in the standard
of living. It is these imminent risks of armed conflicts that make them attractive for use by the
perpetrators as bargaining chips (Arellano and Bover, 1995). Studies on the effect of armed
conflicts on economic development are under-estimated because of the general belief that
conflicts have the tendency of undermining development. As for civil wars, for instance, the
generally believed view is that such events are undoubtedly devastating for the countries in
which they occur. Africa, for instance, is a region whose development is widely acclaimed to
be disrupted by incessant and persistent armed conflicts. Thus, the nature of conflicts in the
region directly connotes its dire consequences. In the word of , ‘crises encompass disasters
and other events where the functioning of a society is seriously disrupted, causing widespread
human, material or environmental losses that exceed the ability of the affected society to cope
using its own resources' ( Asiedu and Lien, 2011).

In his title on 'Africa's Wars and Prospects for Peace', Raymond Copson captured as being
inherent in the fact that wars cause injuries capable of rendering erstwhile productive to
dependent population; increase the number of refugees and displaced persons; and lead to
human rights abuses. There have equally been some empirical efforts to test for the
sensitivity of the impact across different economic sectors. Some examples here include the
study on the impact on: the tourism industry, discriminate impact on mineral and non-mineral
resources, bilateral trade as well as the relationship between various forms of terrorism and
FDI (Alao, 2007). Broadly, very few attempts have been made to examine, from a
macroeconomic point of view, how armed conflicts comparatively affect economic growth
and citizens’ wellbeing in developing countries; and specifically in the case of Africa,
empirical efforts on how the intensity of conflicts interact to influence economic growth and
wellbeing.

Civil wars pose negative consequences on educational performance and that the rates of
primary and secondary school enrolment were very sensitive to periods of crisis. This is
similar to the findings of Arellano and Bover (1995) in the case of Colombia that children
living in municipality with high conflict suffer some defects in education enrolment and
accumulation. The non-democratic, low income countries and countries in the region of
Africa, the detrimental effect of conflict on growth is more severe. Ashby and Ramos (2013)
established a negative impact of conflict on employment in Sierra Leone; and Alao (2007)
found that a significant negative relationship existed between the level of kidnapping and
firms' investment decisions in Colombia.

Conflict has clear detrimental effects on the reduction of poverty and hunger, on primary
education, on the reduction of child mortality, and on access to potable water. Wars and
conflicts have caused deaths of household breadwinners and exacerbating the population of
displaced persons and refugees, and by so doing undermine quality of life of both the victims
and the refugee host communities Whether internally or cross-nationally, the majority of
refugees are clearly women, children, and the elderly. They are often subject to various forms
of exploitation, rape and sexual abuse, and are exposed to political violence and torture.
Armed conflicts increase the risk and costs associated with doing businesses in the affected
country, and weaken the country’s socioeconomic institutions and its capacity to attract and
retain investments. By so doing, armed conflicts undermine the economic wellbeing and
growth in the affected areas. Alao (2007) stated that armed conflicts strain the financial
resources of the actors and by so doing undermine sustainable and viable political stability
and economic development in the conflict-ridden.

Conclusion

Since independence in the late 20th century, African countries have been betting with the
problem of civil wars and inter- state conflicts. This has taken its toll on Africa’s
development in a number of ways especially in death of her illustrious sons and daughters
and alienation of her peoples which in turn has been hindering the process of integration and
cohesion in Africa. Thuggery, looting and arson have become part and parcel of Africa’s
political culture. This should not be allowed to continue if Africa is to witness sporadic
growth and development and compete favourably with other continents of the world. All
hands must therefore he on deck to halt this negative development and chart a new course for
peace in Africa. This will not only enhance adequate security of life and property in Africa, it
will also attract foreign investors to Africa for the adequate exploration of her numerous
natural resources for growth and development.
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