environmental degradation as a cause of conflict in - Steiner Graphics

IntroductionACCORDING to the 1993 population census eighty-six percent of the DarfurPopulation lived in the rural areas, with modes of living being either traditionalagriculture or livestock rearing. Competition between farmers andherders is increasingly becoming acute, leading on many occasions to violent conflicts.Two factors have been responsible for aggravating the conflict situation inthe region. One of them is lack of development, which has kept the region at thestage of traditional or semi-traditional society. In such a society, individuals andgroups rely on communal solidarity for the provision of material needs and protection(see Palmer 1980).The government institutions that cater to the protection of people’s life andproperty either do not exist or are inadequate to do the job. Identity groups tend torely on their communal institutions for sustenance and wellbeing. The image of the‘warrior man’ develops spontaneously to protect one’s community or to attack othercommunities. On the other hand, women are assigned the role of arbiters of man’sconduct. Among the Arab nomadic groups, the Hakkama, which means literally thearbiter of conduct, is a singer who composes songs encouraging her people to go towar and fight to the death (see Mohamed 2004). The relationship among local communitieshas mostly been characterized by hostility, lack of trust and predispositionto go to war against one another.The other factor, leading to inter-group conflicts, is pastoral nomadism as amode of living for a sizable number of the rural population. Not only would the livestocktrespass onto farmlands, but also the nomadic people themselves are predisposedto engage in raiding and fighting with other communities, particularly withsettled farmers. In his Muqaddima (Introduction) Ibn Khaldun describes very vividlythe attitude and behaviour patterns of the nomadic groups he personally observedin North Africa at the time of his writing (see Rosenthal 1958). Ibn Khaldun goesto the extent of attributing the rise and fall of leaderships and kingdoms in NorthAfrica to wars in which the nomads were the main actors.In fact, it is not only the Arab nomads who are predisposed to go to war. Manyanalysts would regard nomadism, per se, as related to raiding and violent behaviour.Many of them would make the point that even the ‘Great Wall of China’ was built tostop the nomads from attacking the settled farmers.In the Sudan, the nomadic segments of the population are to be found in severalplaces, although increasingly they are becoming settled farmers. Particularly importantfor our discussion are the nomadic groups that are to be found in two ecologicalzones: the first zone is the semi-desert that extends all the way from the River Nilein the Sudan to Ennedi Mountains in the present day Chad republic. This belt hasbeen and still is occupied by camel nomads of different groups of Arabs and non-Ar-68