Arms availability and refugee militarization in Africa — conceptualizing the issues

Muggah, Robert; Mogire, Edward

doi:10.5040/9781350221550.ch-01

Cited by 3 publications

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“…While the notion of refugees as a general security threat is challenged by Zhou and Shaver (2021), several associations remain well-established in the broader literature. Case studies have detailed how warring parties actively engage in the militarization of refugee situations (e.g., Harpviken and Lischer 2013; Lischer 2005; Muggah 2006). Militarization is typically found in areas where refugees are poorly governed and weakly protected (Loescher and Milner 2005), suggesting that host governments’ administrative capacity moderates the risk of refugee-related conflict (Böhmelt et al 2018).…”

Section: Previous Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Moving Through Conflict: Transit Migration and Rebel Capacity in Mali

Nydal

2023

Journal of Conflict Resolution

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How do rebel organizations capitalize on transit migration? While numerous studies have examined the role of refugees, this article explores a broader yet significant category of mobile populations in civil conflict. Focusing on Mali, I argue that transit migration increases rebel capacity based on three causal mechanisms: Obstacles in transit, camping banditry, and dynamic recruitment. Obstacles are an enabling mechanism by facilitating the intersection between rebels and migrants. As camping bandits, rebels move between violent extortion and systematic exploitation depending on levels of competition. Finally, I argue that rebels recruit transit migrants using dynamic strategies, including coercive incentives and short-term contracts in which social and ideological requirements are relaxed. Combining quantitative analysis with original interview data, I find significant support for the causal argument and preliminary evidence for my conceptual framework. The findings improve our understanding of rebel organizations and the role of mobile populations in civil conflict.

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Section: Previous Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Moving Through Conflict: Transit Migration and Rebel Capacity in Mali

Nydal

2023

Journal of Conflict Resolution

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Uchodźcy w Afryce. Etnografia przemocy i cierpienia

Ząbek¹

2018

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Do Refugee Camps Offer a Refuge From Conflict? A Spatially Explicit Analysis of Conflict Incidence at 1,543 Refugee Camps Across Africa (1997–2020)

Fein¹,

Hoek²

2022

Front. Hum. Dyn.

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By the end of 2020, 20.7 million refugees worldwide were under the protection of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Despite the intended role of refugee camps as sanctuaries for people fleeing conflict and persecution, recent empirical research has shown that many refugees continue to experience conflict even after settling in camps. Measuring refugee exposure to conflict, especially recurrent conflict, is important for the design and evaluation of refugee settlement and asylum policies, refugee-host relationships, as well as refugee security and protection. However, existing research is either nationally aggregated or highly localized at a small number of refugee camps and does not consider changes in conflict incidence following refugee arrivals, leaving uncertainty around near-camp conflict dynamics across refugee hosting countries. To address these gaps, we measured conflict event proximity, frequency, and trends around refugee and non-refugee settlements in all refugee-hosting countries in Africa over a 24-year period (1997–2020). We used georeferenced data on 1,543 refugee camps from UNHCR and conflict event data from the Armed Conflict Location Event Database (ACLED), and compared localized conflict incidence at refugee camps to 4,003 non-refugee settlements from the Global Rural-Urban Mapping Project (GRUMP). Our results show that 52% of all refugee camps and 94% of urban refugee camps were within 10 km of at least one armed conflict event after camp establishment. Conversely, only 82% of urban settlements without refugee camps were within 10 km of a conflict event, suggesting that urban refugee camps are subject to nearby conflict at a disproportionately higher rate compared to both rural refugee camps and non-refugee settlements. We also find that conflict events moved an average of 11.2 km closer to refugee camps after camp establishment, indicating a general encroachment of conflict upon camps. Such persistent and widespread conflict challenges the security of camps and the protections afforded to refugees, and merits increased attention from host countries and humanitarian actors.

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Arms availability and refugee militarization in Africa — conceptualizing the issues

Cited by 3 publications

References 0 publications

Moving Through Conflict: Transit Migration and Rebel Capacity in Mali

Moving Through Conflict: Transit Migration and Rebel Capacity in Mali

Uchodźcy w Afryce. Etnografia przemocy i cierpienia

Do Refugee Camps Offer a Refuge From Conflict? A Spatially Explicit Analysis of Conflict Incidence at 1,543 Refugee Camps Across Africa (1997–2020)

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