Violent Conflicts and Civil Strife in West Africa: Causes, Challenges and Prospects

Identity Politics, Citizenship and the 2010 Post-Election Conflict in Côte d’Ivoire

“…From these two perspectives of the structural conflict theory that is, the Marxist and liberal perspectives, the liberalists offered a more convincing explanation on the causes of conflicts and the conditions under which they occur particularly as regards to the African conflicts. African conflicts are mostly due to competing interest of individual groups 4 or nations states over scarce resources or struggle over power (Annan, 2014).…”

“…The civil war in West African countries could be directly traced to the argument of Nathan (2000) as reported by researchers (Adebajo, 2002;Harris, 2004;Afisi, 2009: pp. 59-66;Matlosa et al, 2009;IPI, 2011, Salehyan andLinebarger, 2013;Annan, 2014;Bøås and Utas, 2014;Utas and Christensen, 2016). The weakness of institutions is most evident when states undergo the processes of economic, political and social change.…”

“…Since the end of cold war, conflict shifted from the paradigm of inter-state to intra-state, that is, internal conflicts within a state (Annan, 2014). This however contradicted the idea that the world will once again be peaceful.…”

“…Accordingly, the neighbouring effects of these wars often lead to or attract international response to such conflicts. The cause of conflict especially in West Africa has been reported mainly from struggle for political power (IPI, 2011;Salehyan and Linebarger, 2013;Annan, 2014). However, the spread of the conflict mostly borders on issues that affect society such as poverty, marginalization, corruption, human right violations, small arms and weapons proliferation, religion amongst others (Annan, 2014).…”

“…The cause of conflict especially in West Africa has been reported mainly from struggle for political power (IPI, 2011;Salehyan and Linebarger, 2013;Annan, 2014). However, the spread of the conflict mostly borders on issues that affect society such as poverty, marginalization, corruption, human right violations, small arms and weapons proliferation, religion amongst others (Annan, 2014). The Republic of Côte d'Ivoire was once one of the stable and increasing developmental and prosperous 1 countries in the West Africa region became instable after the failed coup attempt in 2002 (Gberie and Addo, 2004).…”