Root Causes and Current Conflicts

Root Causes

Violence , or the threat of violence, remains the primary cause of refugee flows. A multitude of conditions, however, generate refugee-producing violence; many violent conflicts result from more than one, or the interplay of several conditions. Root causes of conflicts include, but are not limited to: ethnic and tribal factionalism; international (state-on-state) war; repression of socially or politically organized peoples; disparities of wealth (unintentional or state-sponsored); shortage of basic natural resources; religious persecution; population flows; among many others. The Current Conflicts section, below, evidences how these factors produce significant refugee populations.

Current Conflicts

Sudan ’s Darfur Region

The humanitarian crisis in Sudan’s western Darfur region began in 2003 when at least two Darfurian tribes rebelled against the Sudanese government over agricultural land rights and regional governance issues. A decades-long social undercurrent of racial prejudice and persecution further incited the current conflict. Fighting between rebel tribes and the government and government-backed Janjawid militias has resulted in mass killings, looting and destruction of property, systematic rape, and the destabilization of social and cultural norms among the Fur, Masalit, and Zaghawa tribes.

The conflict has produced more than 200,000 refugees (nearly all of whom fled to neighboring Chad) and two million IDPs. Continued violence in Darfur – some of which has spilled into adjacent regions of Chad – threatens prospects for humanitarian assistance to displaced person and eventual return.

Northern Uganda

A 20-year war between the Ugandan government and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has displaced more than 1.5 million individuals. In 2005, the LRA continued its systematic terrorizing of northern Ugandan villages and refugee camps. The purpose of the LRA’s campaign is not clear. The messianic group attaches no specific policy position or social cause to their violence. The militia’s tactics are less opaque. The LRA targets children and abducts thousands of young boys and girls for conscripment as soldiers, porters, or as "wives" for LRA commanders. The raids have affected the 173,000 Sudanese refugees living in the region, displacing over 31,000 of them from their settlements.

Cote d’Ivoire

In 2005, Cote d'Ivoire, once one of West Africa’s most stable and economically viable states, struggled to emerge from a recent conflict, begun in 2002. A failed coup attempt was launched by disgruntled soldiers early in the year, and opposition-sponsored violence developed again later in the year in the western town of Duekoue. Government-sponsored retaliation killings followed. Prospects for peace dimmed when South Africa subsequently pulled out of mediation between the two waring parties.

About one million Ivorians have been displaced from their homes since the fighting began. In addition, 600,000 economic migrants to the country have been affected by government-led persecution of immigrants. These immigrants have fled Cote d’Ivoire back to Mali and Burkina Faso, causing strain to those countries as they attempt to absorb the returnees.

The violence has also affected the country’s expatriate community. Nearly 9,000 French residents and other European nationals fled Cote d'Ivoire in November 2004 after pro-government mobs rampaged through Abidjan, protesting France's military intervention to halt the government offensive.

Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

The current conflict in Congo began in 1997, under the presidency of Mobutu Sese Sekou. Rwandan military crossed the Congolese border pursuing combatants in that country’s civil war, and in the process captured much of the east of the country. Anti-Mobutu forces, with Rwandan support, then captured the capital Kinshasa and installed Laurent Kabila as president.

Conflict broke out soon after, when Rwandan and Ugandan rebels rose against Kabila. The war threatened to destabilize the entire region, when Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia pledged their support for the DRC government. The war claimed some 2.5 million lives and forced hundreds of thousands of Congolese to flee to Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda. Although a peace accord was signed in 1999, the country remained unstable. In 2001, Laurent Kabila was assassinated and replaced by his son, Joseph.

Joseph Kabila has made strides towards bringing peace, signing two separate peace accords and finalizing a new constitution in May 2005. In a national referendum held in December, over 15 million people cast ballots to ratify the new constitution.

The conflict has not been completely resolved however. In 2005, government forces continued to clash with Congolese of Rwandan origin in the eastern part of the country, causing significant population displacement.

Protracted Refugee Displacements

The UNHCR defines a protracted refugee situation as the following.

A protracted refugee situation is one in which refugees find themselves in a long-lasting and intractable state of limbo. Their lives may not be at risk, but their basic rights and economic, social, and psychological needs remain unfulfilled in years of exile. A refugee in this situation is often unable to break free from enforced reliance on external assistance.²

The large majority of such situations exist in Africa, where, in 2004, 2.3 million refugees lived in 22 separate protracted displacements. The human experience of these situations varies greatly and significantly depends on the host country’s willingness to allow refugees to realize their basic human rights, such as the right to economic livelihood, to move about the host country unimpeded, and for children to receive education. Without such rights, refugees’ lives are wasted. Reliance on aid perpetuates poverty, child labor flourishes, and a social stratification develops within the host society.

More information on refugee ‘warehousing’ can be found at the website of the Refugee Council USA, of which ECDC is a member.

²Executive Committee of the High Commissioner’s Programme, Standing Committee 30 th Meeting, EC/54/SC/CRP.14, June 10, 2004.