Armed Conflict In Sub Saharan Africa

Armed Conflict is one of the principal causes of the plight of Sub-Saharan Africa today. Conflicts in Africa have caused massive death and destruction, uprooting of the populations, and erosion of social capital. The factors that have sparked these conflicts range from poverty, struggle for scarce resources, rapid economic modernization, ethnic rivalries, religious intolerance, bad governance and misuse of resources, arbitrary national boundaries imposed by colonial powers, political-military groups by outside powers, erosion of the international architecture created during the Cold War to the lack of democracy and human rights and high-level of corruption.

Armed conflicts in Sub Saharan Africa have - along with large population of displaced people and refugees and HIV/AIDS pandemic - been identified as a major factor in slowing down the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The resources spent on warfare could, if redirected, make a significant contribution to addressing the MDGs and other developmental challenges. Above all, there is usually
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*’Yomi Olukolu, Esq., LL.M, M.Phil, Lecturer, Department of Jurisprudence & International Law, …show more content…
The Geneva Conventions refer to two types of armed conflict—“international armed conflict” and “non-international armed conflict”—but do not define the term “armed conflict” and do not provide definitive answers in peripheral situations of conflict, such as those involving a State and a transnational terrorist network. However, the Geneva Conventions do not operate in a vacuum but function in conjunction with other bodies of law, including, in particular, Human Right Laws