Resource control and conflict in Africa

Abstract

Africa is naturally endowed with valuable resources that include oil, diamonds, gold, cobalt, among others. The marginalisation and deprivation of the host communities—the victims of environmental impoverishment as a consequence of resource extraction in Africa—have informed the series of conflicts in Africa in recent years. A series of arguments has been put forward with regard to the link between resource control and conflicts in Africa because rebel groups are known to control such resources as a means to finance civil war. However, there is another dimension to resource control and conflict that might be connected to the devastating effect of the extraction of natural resources on host communities. This chapter will adopt relevant resource-control theories and additional theoretical models that can account for the relationship between resource-driven conflicts and the expected humanitarian crises beyond the basic explanatory dynamics.