Borderland Conflicts in East Africa: The Unnoticed Wars in the Ethiopia-Kenya Border

Abstract

The borderland between Ethiopia and Kenya is considered as a hotbed of interethnic conflicts. The Dassanech and the Nyangatom people in Ethiopia and the Turkana in Kenya are among the hostile groups, who have been fighting unnoticed wars for decades now. Environmental scarcity, which was caused by physical factors and human actions, and a host of other factors seem to interact in fuelling tensions. The cross-border conflicts could not be contained partly for lack of attention from the two states: Ethiopia and Kenya, and partly for other reasons. Historically, the border area inhabited by the three ethnic groups was viewed as remote, inhospitable, and marginal. Since recent years, however, the discovery of oil in Turkana and the agricultural investments in Ethiopia significantly increased the economic attractiveness of the area. However, the new developments failed to translate into opportunities for peace and sharing of benefits by the local pastoralists couldn’t be attained easily. Instead, the frequency and severity of violent clashes increased, and the cross-boundary social relations that previously used to prevent intergroup conflicts are weakened. The traditional conflict-handling mechanisms and the formal peace-making efforts by government authorities became ineffective. Based on Thomas Homer-Dixon’s (1994) environmental scarcity model, this paper examined the link between environment and conflict. Moreover, Ashutosh Varshney’s (2001) perspectives on the role of social capital in preventing conflict and fostering peace has been discussed. Besides presenting the challenges, this paper identified the key areas of interventions for addressing cross-border inter-ethnic conflicts in the Ethiopia-Kenya borderland.