ARMED CONFLICTS IN THE SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA SINCE THE END OF THE COLD WAR: AN ANALYSIS OF NEW CONFLICTUALITY IN WEST

AFRICA
By Eric Dlidji DEGILA1
eric.degila@univ-lyon3.fr

A Paper to be presented at the Second World International Studies Conference (WISC), University of Ljubljana, 23-26 July 2008.
Abstract
Since the end of the Cold War, Sub Saharan Africa has been the most conflicting area of the world2, especially West Africa which is a privileged theatre of various crises and wars: Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, the region of Casamance in Senegal, Cte dIvoire etc. The first war which broke out in this sub region is the Liberian civil war, in 1989. Since this period, the West Africa has experienced a situation of instability which gave birth to various armed conflicts - Sierra Leone, Guinea, Cte dIvoire - , what Michel GALY calls a system of war3. How do these armed conflicts happen? Are there common variables between them? And then, can we talk about a new form of conflictuality in Sub Saharan Africa, especially in West Africa? The aim of this paper is to analyze the armed conflicts in West Africa since 1989. It will identify the common variables between these wars: the question of ethnicity and religious cleavage, the phenomenon of warlord, the problem of child soldiers and the question of economy of war. For this research, we will adopt a qualitative and a quantitative method by calling up various theories of security - especially neo realist, ethno realist but also liberal and constructivist theories - to analyse our subject.

Outline
Introduction The birth of system of war in West Africa Typology of armed conflicts in West Africa Conclusion and tracks of solution Bibliography
Eric Dlidji DEGILA is currently making his doctoral studies in the Department of Political Science, University JEAN MOULIN Lyon III in France with a specialization in International Security and International Relations. He holds a Master degree (First Class Honours) in Political Science jointly from Universities PierreMends-France of Grenoble and Jean Moulin of Lyon, in France. He also previously worked at Foreign Affairs of his native country Benin, after diplomatic studies at ENA. 2 For more details, see the following: BACOT-DECRIAUD M., JOUBERT J-P. , PLANTIN M-C. La Scurit Internationale dun sicle lautre Paris, Editions lHarmattan, Mars 2002, Coll. Raoul-Dandurand P.359 3 GALY M. Afrique : contexte de guerre et de violence, violence et violations des Droits de lHomme , Scurit Mondiale, N7, Janvier 2004.
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Eric Dlidji DEGILA, Universit Jean MOULIN Lyon III, France

Introduction
The twentieth century has been the most conflicting period of the World history: two global wars that some people experienced within their lifespan, many regional and civil armed conflicts4. This convulsive expression of violence has been variable during this century. In fact, at the end of the World War II, the international society lived a particular period, the Cold War which has been characterized by a strong ideological opposition between the liberal world led by the United States of America, and the communist world led by the Soviet Union. The major part of historians5 agrees to say that the bipolarity of the International system during this period has been a peacemaker factor in International Relations. At the end of the Cold War - marked by the fall of the Berlin Wall6 the International Society began a new era characterized by a resurgence of violence, through the multiplication of armed conflicts7, particularly civil wars. These civil wars are not traditional conflicts between a State and another one, as Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote in his book Du Contrat social8 but there are complex conflicts between persons, social groups. Their privilege theatre is the Sub Saharan Africa. Sub Saharan Africa9, made up of fifty-six countries is separated from the North of Africa by the tropic of Cancer. This part of the African continent, our field-study is divided in four sub regions: West Africa, East Africa, Central Africa and Southern Africa. In 2002, twenty-three in thirty-four armed conflicts around the World took place in Sub Saharan Africa10 and a half dozen in West Africa. As we said, these conflicts are generally very complex, and it is difficult to categorize them: crisis, civil war, interstate conflict, simple war?

HOBSBAWM, Eric J. The age of extremes: a history of the world, 1914-1991, London, M. Joseph and Pelham Books, 1994. 5 Some authors dont agree with this theory. By example Robert GILPIN, who thinks that bipolarity doesnt mean stability. For more details, see Robert GILPIN, War and change in World Politics, Princeton University Press, 1981 6 The Berlins Wall tumbled the 9th November 1989 7 In 1993, Samuel Huntington an American political scientist developed the thesis of Clash of civilizations, in an article published in Foreign Affairs under the title The clash of civilizations? In this article, he explained that the post Cold-War will be a conflicting era and the main causes of these conflicts are cultural and religious differences. 8 ROUSSEAU Jean-Jacques, Du contrat social Paris, Editions Garnier-Flammarion, 1996, p. 47 9 Its the part of African continent located from East to West, between Sahara desert and the Kalahari desert, in the South of the continent 10 CHAIGNEAU, Pascal Pour une typologie des conflits africains in BACOT-DECRIAUD M., JOUBERT J-P. , PLANTIN M-C. La Scurit Internationale dun sicle lautre Paris, Editions lHarmattan, Mars 2002, Coll. Raoul-Dandurand , p.359

Eric Dlidji DEGILA, Universit Jean MOULIN Lyon III, France

According to Jean-Louis Dufour, a crisis is all breaks in an organised system which necessitates decisions from actors in order to: return to the ex ante situation or create a new situation which causes a new stability in the system11

Raymond Aron defines a war as a violent conflict between organised groups. A conflict is a relation between many persons -or groups- who pursue incompatible aims12. Basically, a war - an interstate conflict - is defined as a conflict involving at least one member of [the] interstate system on each side of the war, resulting in a total of 1,000 or more battle deaths13. Jean-Pierre Derriennic, in his book Les guerres civiles gives a substantial definition of civil wars: civil wars are violent conflicts which oppose between them fellowcountrymen, whereas soldiers of interstate wars are foreign to one another. Civil wars correspond to situations in which the sovereignty of a State is impugned or broken 14 The World Bank gives also a specific definition of civil wars: We qualify a situation as a civil war when a rebel organization defies militarily a government and the violence which results leads to more than 1,000 deaths, with at least 5% in each camp15. An analysis of our field-study shows the presence of various conflicting situations. These situations generally are crises which become very rapidly civil wars, even if sometimes few situations end up in interstate conflicts. Then, why does Sub Saharan Africa become so conflicting, since the end of the Cold War? Is there a new form of conflictuality in West Africa? The aim of this paper is to analyze the armed conflicts that broke out since 1989 in this sub region. For this issue, we will adopt a qualitative and quantitative method, by calling up various theories of security: neo realist and ethno realist approaches but also liberal and constructivist theories. In the first part of our reflection, we will deal with the birth of a system war in West Africa. The beginning of our analysis will be focused on the Liberian civil war, at the end of 1989. The second point of this part will be to explain how the Liberian conflict diverted toward other West African countries, such as Sierra Leone, Guinea and Cte dIvoire.
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DUFOUR, Jean-Louis Les crises internationales de Pkin au Kosovo, Paris, Editions Complexe, 2001 p.21 Raymond ARON, Raymond Paix et guerre entre les Nations, Paris, PUF, 1963, P.343 13 SINGER, J. David and SMALL, Melvin The wages of War 1816-1965: A Statistical Handbook, New York, The Free Press, 1972 14 DERRIENIC, Jean-Pierre Les guerres civiles, Paris, Presses de Science Po , Avril 2001, p.13 15 The World Bank, Briser la spirale des conflits. Guerre civile et politique de dveloppement, Bruxelles, Editions De Boeck Univerist, 2005, p.35

Eric Dlidji DEGILA, Universit Jean MOULIN Lyon III, France

In the second part of this paper, we will try to make a typology of armed conflicts in West Africa, by highlighting the identity aspects, the religious cleavage, the question of economy of war and the phenomenon of warlord in these conflicts. We will conclude our reflection by proposing few solutions tracks, especially cooperative security issue. We will also deal with the important link between security and development in sub Saharan Africa, especially West Africa.

I/ The birth of system of a war in West Africa

Since the end of the Cold War, West Africa experienced a situation of instability characterized by various armed conflicts. The first one is the Liberian civil war began in 1989, and which became the epicentre of a conflicting dynamic of this sub region16.

A/The Liberian conflict, epicentre of instability in West Africa in the 1990s

At the end of the year 1989, the Republic of Liberia dived in an unsmiling internal trouble which will progressively pushed the country in a deep chaos, insomuch experts qualified Liberia as a failed-state17. This trouble erupted with the inroad of the Nimba region of the country by a group of rebels from Cte dIvoire, the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) led by Charles Taylor on 24th December 1989. The National Liberian Army controlled by the President Samuel Doe opposed a strong resistance to Charles Taylors rebel group. It was the beginning of a bloody conflict, the first Liberian civil war. From 1999 to 2003, Liberia experienced its second civil war, which opposed the Liberian United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) supported by Guinea to Charles Taylors government18. This second civil war was more complex because, in earlier 2003 a second rebel group, the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL) emerged against Charles Taylors government in the South of the country, from Cte dIvoire. Finally, in August 2003 the parties of the conflict signed the Accra Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) arranging

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For more details, see Tackling Liberia : the eye of the regional storm , Africa Report N62, International Crisis Group 17 ELLIS, Stephen The mask of anarchy : the destruction of Liberia and the religious dimensionof an african civil war, Londres, Hurst and Co., 1999 18 At the end of the first Liberian civil war by earlier 1997, Charles Taylor will be elected as President of Liberia in July 1999.

Eric Dlidji DEGILA, Universit Jean MOULIN Lyon III, France

for National Transitional Government of Liberia. Then, President Taylor went into exile in Nigeria19. To understand the situation of Liberia, it is important to analyse the nature of this conflict the first Liberian civil war - which destabilized the country from 1989 to 1996. In his book Les guerres civiles, Jean-Pierre Derriennic explains that we live in a period where interstate wars are infrequent and peace is conditional on civil wars control20. He pursues his analysis by writing that these civil wars which make us afraid more than in the past are produced by three types of conflict: conflicts between identity groups conflicts between partisan groups conflicts between socio-economic groups

These types of conflicts, he writes happen in conflicting societies in which dialogue between belligerents is much reduced. According to these benchmarks of Jean-Pierre Derriennic, the situation Liberia lived from the end of 1989 to 1996 is really the one of a civil war. In fact, when Charles Taylor attacked the country at the end of December 1989 with his rebel group the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), he pushed Liberia in a civil war, which will oppose two partisan groups for the control of supreme authority. Additionally, there was an identity motivation from Charles Taylor and his rebel group NPFL, to overthrow President Samuel Doe who was from a different ethnic group21. This offensive of Charles Taylor did not reach its aim, the hold of the presidential palace at Monrovia22. Anyway, this attack by the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) turned out to be the origin of the Liberian civil war - the first one -, which will led to a batch of feedback on regional level, in West Africa. The bloody war transformed the country in a situation of quasi-state, non-state, state-of-war23. This situation, characterized by the deliquescence of the state-owned system gave birth to a new phenomenon in West Africa: the warrior nomadism and the warlodism.

For more details, see McGOVERN, Mike Liberia Case Study, in Charles Call, ed, Building States to Build Peace, International Peace Academy, Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2007 20 DERRINNIC, Jean-Pierre Les guerres civiles, Paris, Presses de Science Po, Avril 2001 21 The President Samuel Doe was from Krahn ethnic Group whereas Charles Taylor is an americo-liberian, descended from free-born blacks from America who founded Liberia in 1847 22 In fact, after the attack of the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) in Nimba region, the capital Monrovia will be hold by Prince Johnson an allied of Charles Taylor, few months later in September 1990. 23 For more details, see RENO, William Warlord Politics and African States, Boulder, Co., Lynne Rienner, 1998

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Eric Dlidji DEGILA, Universit Jean MOULIN Lyon III, France

Michel Galy, in his paper entitled: From the nomad war: seven approaches of the conflict around Cte dIvoire24, makes a remarkable analysis of the phenomenon of warrior nomadism and the state-of-war in Liberia. He explains that with the Liberian civil war the first one we attended to the appearance of warrior nomadism at which correspond modifications and glides of the State which insidiously changes finally into ghost-state. An entity emptied of all components which constitute a State, namely the capacity to assure the security of the population reunited on the territory under its control25. According to the author, the state-ofwar is inflected on an Orwellian mode where the propaganda and the signifier mean the opposite of reality. In this particular context, there is a strong presence of the armed forces. Dialectically, this state-of-war can change into a wars machine returning to his ethnic fiefs, for a new cycle of violence in order to recover the central authority. In sum, the Liberian first civil war transformed the country into an anarchical political entity regulated by the brute strength. It is this disorder, this anarchy that will spread over the boundaries of Liberia, to give birth to what Michel Galy calls a system of war26.

B/ The drift of the Liberian conflict towards border countries: the case of Sierra Leone, Guinea and Cte dIvoire
The Liberian civil war produced and continues to produce - various repercussions on the sub region of West Africa at tiered. In fact, Franois Gaulme differentiates many levels of reaction in the Liberian civil war on West Africa. The first one is the regional level, with a progressive drift of the Liberian civil war towards Sierra Leone, Guinea and more recently Cte dIvoire. The second level is the transborder level, which corresponds to partnership and economic complicities between Liberian rebels and different groups and lobbies in neighbour countries27. Whether regional or transborder level, the Liberian civil war gave birth in West Africa to a system of war.

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GALY, Michel Afrique : contexte de guerre et de violence, violence et violation des Droits de lHomme, pillages conomiques. Le cas du Congo-Zare et de la Cte dIvoire , cit par Mlanie Cathelin in Scurit mondiale, N7 Janvier 2004 25 This definition is quoted from: ROCHE, Jean-Jacques Relations Internationales , L.G.D.L, 2004, page 83 26 GALY, Michel (sous la direction de) Guerres nomades et socits ouest africaines, Paris Editions de lHarmattan, Novembre 2007 27 GAULME, Franois La Cte dIvoire et la dynamique conflictuelle en Afrique de lOuest : une approche rgionale pour une action concerte Paper published after the Seminar organized in May 2003 by le Club du Sahel et de lAfrique de lOuest and Foreign Affairs of France, on Conflicts and development policies in Mano river countries and Cte dIvoire. The regional issues of stabilisation and rebuilding

Eric Dlidji DEGILA, Universit Jean MOULIN Lyon III, France

Indeed, the Liberian civil war created in West Africa a complex system of conflict. It is what Stephan Ellis explained in a publication in May 2003 on the occasion of a seminar organized by le Club du Sahel et de lAfrique de lOuest and the Foreign Affairs of France. He writes that the Liberian conflict has proved to be the main cause of Sierra Leone, Guinea and Cte dIvoires destabilization. 28 He pursues his point by writing that the West African conflicts born at the end of the 1980s must be perceived on a regional angle, as a kind of system of conflicts whose actors want to maintain their influence through an informal web which extend his tentacles over Liberian borders. 29 The first illustration of this point is the civil war in Sierra Leone. In March 1991, a rebel group led by Foday Sankoh -a former Sierra Leonean army corporal- , the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) began to attack villages in the East of Sierra Leone, at the Liberian border. It is important to notice that few years ago, Charles Taylor met the RUFs leader Foday Sankoh in Libyan military camps and made friends with him. Initially, the RUF was lightly armed and its tactic was based on terror, with mutilation as favourite practice. The RUF received very quickly backing from Charles Taylor and gained control of a large part of the Sierra Leonean territory, especially diamondiferous regions. The objective of Charles Taylor, by supporting the RUF was to extend his influence beyond Liberia. He was also motivated by diamonds deposit in Eastern Sierra Leone, for personal benefits. Another reason of Charles Taylors support to the RUF is to weaken the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG), a multilateral West African peacekeeping force30 that was blocking Taylors attempt to install himself as Liberias President31. Anyway, we can notice that the beginning of the Sierra Leone civil war was linked to the Liberian civil war, especially to Charles Taylor actions. Then we can talk about a transfer of conflict from Liberia to Sierra Leone. The second illustration of the system of wars in West Africa with Liberia as epicentre is the Guinean case. At the beginning of September 2000, Guinea has been attacked by rebels near the town of Macenta, a forest region close to the Liberian border. The assailants raped women, killed civilians, and burned villages. At the same period near the Sierra Leonean border around the towns of Kindia and Forecariah, raiders also attacked villages, abused and
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ELLIS, Stephen Facteurs internationaux des guerres ouest-africaines : le rle des acteurs sous-rgionaux et non africains Paper published after the Seminar organized in May 2003 by le Club du Sahel et de lAfrique de lOuest and Foreign Affairs of France, on Conflicts and development policies in Mano river countries and Cte dIvoire. The regional issues of stabilisation and rebuilding 29 ELLIS, Stephan, op.cit. 30 The major part of ECOWAS contingents were provided by Nigeria which plays a important in the West African sub region. 31 RENO, William The Failure of Peacekeeping in Sierra Leone, Current History, May 2001

Eric Dlidji DEGILA, Universit Jean MOULIN Lyon III, France

murdered people. These attacks mainly came from Liberia and two parts of the Sierra Leonean border, and were claimed by a dissident movement known as the Rassemblement des Forces Dmocratiques de Guine. But this movement turned out to be fictive, and nobody knew his so-called leader Mohamed Lamine Fofana. The version of Guinean Government was that the country was suffering from a foreign invasion from Liberia and the Liberia-backed RUF rebels from Sierra Leone. In fact, two different things happened at the same time. In the forest region near Macenta, events which arose were mostly a Liberian affair. In reality, this region of Guinea became the theatre of fighting between President Charles Taylor32s forces and the Liberian rebel group ULIMO-K opposed to Taylors Government. On the Sierra Leonean border, the situation was different. A Guinean rebel group after training in Liberia by Charles Taylors forces crossed the country and went to the Sierra Leone border with Guinea. Then, they made an alliance with the RUF movement backed by Liberia. And it is this alliance which was responsible for attacks in Guinea, near the towns of Kindia and Forecariath. Quite obviously, the Liberian civil war broke out in 1990 and then extended to Guinea in a regional dynamic of conflict. The Liberian war, qualified as predation war by Pascal Chaigneau33, once again diverted in 2002 to another West African country: Cte dIvoire. In fact, in September 2002, the Republic of Cte dIvoire lived a coup dEtat perpetrated by a rebel group, the Mouvement Patriotique de la Cte dIvoire (MPCI). In November 28th of the same year, two other rebels Groups the Mouvement pour le Justice et la Paix (MJC) and the Mouvement patriotique ivoirien du Grand Ouest (MPIGO) appeared in the West of the country. Very rapidly, the French Army interfered by creating a buffer zone between Governmental Forces and rebel Groups. In a paper entitled Liaisons dangereuses: les implications rgionales de la guerre ivoirienne34, Ruth Marshall Fratani made a good analysis on the regionalization of the Ivorian war. In fact, she established a logic link between the Liberian war and the situation in Cte dIvoire, especially about the West front of this conflict. The regional dimension of the Ivorian war shows that the system of conflict which

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In 2000, Charles Taylor was the elected President of Liberia. CHAIGNEAU Pascal, Pour une typologie des conflits africains , in La Scurit InternationalE dun sicle lautre, Collection Raoul-Dandurand, Ed. LHarmattan, mars 2002 34 MARSHALL-FRATANI Ruth Liaisons dangereuses : les implications rgionales de la guerre ivoirienne paper published after the international Conference on Cte dIvoire, organised in February 2004 at the University of Saint-Paul, Ottawa (http://www.pacweb.org/f/images/stories/documents/cotedivoire_actes.pdf)

Eric Dlidji DEGILA, Universit Jean MOULIN Lyon III, France

was born in West Africa in 1989 spread in the sub region, with the threat of Congolese spectre.35 Ruth M. Fratani pursues her analysis by writing that the West front of the Ivorian war presents an important characteristic: it is the presence of Liberians rebels with the Governmental Forces. This presence was illustrated by activities of the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL) a Liberian rebel Group backed by the Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo, based on ethnic considerations. Then, the implication of Liberian fighters basically changed the nature of the situation in Cte dIvoire, to turn out this war in an alter ego of the Liberian civil war. Over the alliances of interests and circumstance, the drift of the Liberian war to Cte dIvoire follows the logic of transborder and interethnic oppositions. In the same time, this situation encouraged the multiplication of land conflicts with a strong opposition between immigrants from Burkina Faso, Mali and their hosts Gur, Kru and Bt36. At the beginning of the Ivorian civil war, President Laurent Gbagbo was confronted with the inability of the National Forces of Cte dIvoire to fight the rebel Groups. Then he decided to recruit his own soldiers to wage his war37. As a consequence, he recruited many mercenaries from Angola, South Africa and Liberians. Generally, the Liberian mercenaries were recruited by a Gur ethnic web called W, which are close with the ethnic group of the President Gbagbo. This phenomenon causes us to consider a particular aspect of Ivorian war, its ethnic dimension. Anyway, the Ivorian war intervened in the particular context of the system of conflict in West Africa, born in 1989 with the first Liberian civil war. Then, are there common variables between armed conflicts born in West Africa since the end of the Cold War?

II/ Typology of armed conflicts in West Africa since the end of the Cold War
Since the end of the Cold War, Sub Saharan Africa became the most conflicting area of the Word, especially West Africa. This situation appeared in 1989 with the Liberian civil war, which extended to neighbour countries as Sierra Leone, Guinea and Cte dIvoire. In this
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MARSHALL-FRATANI Ruth, op.cit Gur, Kru and Bt are indigenous populations of Cte dIvoire 37 For more details, see Ruth Marshall-Fratani, op. cit.

Eric Dlidji DEGILA, Universit Jean MOULIN Lyon III, France

section, we will try to make a typology of armed conflicts in this sub region by highlighting identity aspects namely the question of ethnicity and the problem of religious cleavage in these conflicts. We will also deal with the phenomenon of warlordism, the question of economy of war, and socio-economic aspects of armed conflicts since the end of to Cold War. To that end, our reflection will be focused on four case studies: Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Cte dIvoire.

A/ Identity dimensions in contemporary conflicts in West Africa

At the end of the Cold War as we explained, West Africa faced - and continues to face - many armed conflicts. These conflicts generally were not interstate conflicts, but rather intrastate conflicts which opposed different groups founded on different standards: ethnos, religion, language, culture and so on. In this section, will we analyze how the identity aspects took an important place in these conflicts. To that end, we will focus on four armed conflicts in West Africa since the end of the Cold War: Liberia, Sierra Leone Guinea and Cte dIvoire. But before, we will analyse the question of ethnicity and the religious cleavage which are the mains elements of identity conflicts. Generally, the ethnos is defined as a homogeneous human society, founded on the conviction to share a common origin, and on an effective community of language and culture38. The religion is an ensemble of faiths and dogmas defining the link between human being and the sacred.39 In his book Les guerres civiles, Jean-Pierre Derriennic ex plains that identity civil wars oppose social native groups which it is difficult to leave40. According to the author, these identity wars can also be qualified as ethnic wars or racial wars. He pursues his analyse by writing that In this context, groups in conflicts have social and sometimes territorial limits which are very difficult for people to overcome. This is why identity groups are generally effective to face violence situations. But collective identities are not always unmovable. They result from an interdependence relation between duration and standard. A collective identity is an adherence which is given value because it is perceived as unmovable, and because it has a certain value41. Then, identity groups are characterized by two main elements which are in the same time the major causes of identity conflicts: the ethnos or the race and the question of religion.
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Encyclopedic dictionary Le petit Larousse, 2007, p. 435 Encyclopedic dictionary Le petit Larousse, 2007, p.916 40 DERRIENIC, Jean-Pierre Les guerres civiles, Paris, Presses de Science Po, Avril 2001, p.71 41 DERRIENNIC, Jean-Pierre Les guerres civiles, Paris, Presses de Science Po, Avril 2001, p.72

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Ted Gurr is interested in ethnic groups that he defined as groups whose members belong to a psychological community. The members of this community share a history, an identity, cultural values, beliefs, a language and a motherland.42 According to Stuart Kaufmann, an ethnic group is defined by major elements such as a common name, the belief in a same line of descent, habits or colour43. In a consensual approach, Anthony Smith specifies six mains aspects of the ethnic identity: the name, the common past, the history, the culture, the territory and the solidarity44. Identity groups can also be founded on the religion, on a religion. In this case, its the common belief which is the cement of the group and generally, this identity factor is posed, in opposition to another religious identity model. Anyway, the more common form of identity wars is the ethnic conflict generally defined as a war between ethnic groups. According to Stuart Kaufmann, the ethnic conflict or war can be understood as an organized violence in which groups and values are based on ethnic aspects45. Michael Brown defined ethnic conflicts as quarrel between two or many ethnic communities about important litigations related to economic, politic, social or territorial questions46. John Lederach an ethno-realist theoretician analyses ethnic conflicts through the fear and the anarchy, which lead to the ruin of identity coherence and the division of the society.47 In this context, the central power is weak, people from different ethnic groups are afraid of one another: it is the birth of a security dilemma that Barry Posen applied to ethnic conflicts48. According to him, the fear of the other can guide to violence. But these definitions dont take in account all specificities of the phenomenon. Ted Gurr proposes a large definition of ethnic conflicts by integrating two factors: the State the quest of independence

According to him, ethnic conflicts are conflicts in which groups that define themselves using ethnic or national criteria like the Mayans of Chiapas and the Bosnian Serbs

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GURR Ted R. /HARFF, Barbara Ethnic Conflict in World Politics, Boulder, Westview Press, 1994, p.5 KAUFMANN, Stuart J. An international theory of inter-ethnic war Review of International Studies (1996),Vol. 22, p. 150 44 SMITH, Anthony The Ethnic sources of Nationalism , in Michael E. BROWN, (Ed.) Ethnic Conflict and International Security, Princeton, N.J., Princeton University Press, 1993, pp.29-30 45 KAUFMANN Stuart J. An international theory of inter-ethnic war Review of International Studies (1996), 22, p. 150 46 BROWN Michael E., Causes and implications of Ethnic conflict in BROWN Michael E., (ed.) Ethnic Conflict and International Security, Princeton, N.J., Princeton University Press, 1993, p.5 47 LEDERACH, John P., Building Peace: Sustainable Reconciliation in Divided Societies, Washington, United Stataes Institute of Peace, 1997, p.14 48 POSEN, Barry R., The Security Dilemma and Ethnic Conflicts , Survival, Vol.35, N1, Spring 1993, p.31

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make claims on behalf of their collective interests against the State or against other political actors49. The interest of Ted Gurrs definition is that it highlights the internal level of ethnic conflicts but also their transborder dimensions. Generally, there are three illustrative theories or school of thought to understand ethnic conflicts: primordialist theory instrumentalist theory constructivist theory The primordialist theory is founded on the concept of kinship between members of an ethnic group. Ethnic groups exist because there are traditions of belief and action towards primordial objects such as biological features and especially territorial location50. This kinship makes it possible for ethnic groups to think in terms of family resemblances51. The instrumentalist theory explains ethnic conflicts by the conduct of political and community leaders who build their action on a communitarian discourse. According to Anthony Smith, these leaders used their cultural groups as site of mass mobilization and as constituencies in their competition for power and resources52. For Stephan Cornell and Douglas Hartmann, ethnicity and race are viewed as instrumental identities, organised as means to particular ends.53 The third theory, the constructivist theory is based on the concept of the imagined community developed by Benedict Anderson. This school of thought defends the idea of the nation defined as a community socially constructed, in which people perceive themselves as part of the group.54

The analyze of armed conflicts which erupted in West Africa since the end of the Cold War with an ethnic frame of reference, shows that the question of ethnicity takes an important place in these wars.

GURR, Ted Robert, Minorities, Nationalities, and Ethnopolitical Conflict in CROCKER Cherster A./HAMPSON Fen Osler / AALL Pamela (edited by), Managing Global Chaos : Sources of and Responses to International Conflict, Washington D.C., United States Institute of Peace Press, 1996, p.53 50 GROSBY Steven, The verdict of history : the inexpungeable tie of primordiality A response to Eller and Coughlan Ethnic and racial studies,1994, p.168 51 HOROWITZ Donald, Ethnic groups in conflicts, Berkeley CA, University of California Press, 1985, p.57 52 SMITH Anthony, Nationalism: Theory, Ideology, History , Cambridge : Polity, 2001, pp. 54-55 53 CORNELL Stephen /HARTMANN Douglas, Ethnicity and Race: Making Identities in a changing World, Thousands Oaks, CA Pine Forge, 1998, p.59 54 ANDERSON Benedict, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origins and spread of Nationalism, New York: Verso Books, 1993. ISBN 0-86091-329-5 , p.6

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It is particularly the case of the Liberian civil war. In fact, the analysis of our first casestudy, the Liberian civil war - provoked by the attack in December 1989 launched by the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) led by Charles Taylor reveals a crystallization of the identity discourse as part of this civil war. Many rebels of the NPFL were from the Nimba County especially Gio and Mano ethnic groups - , a region which has been ravaged by the Liberian National Army on orders of the previous President of Liberia Samuel Doe. When Charles Taylor decided to attack Samuel Does Government from Cte dIvoire, he received the support of Gio and Mano ethnic groups in Northeast of Liberia who faced brutal treatments from the Liberian National Army. For these indigenous populations, it was the best revenge on Samuel Does Government and above all, a good revenge on the Krahn55 ethnic group. Then the ethnic adherences played an important role in the Liberian civil war. According to various definitions previously developed, especially Ted Gurrs approach, we can say that the Liberian armed conflict has really an important ethnic dimension because we observe a conflict between groups which defined themselves on the basis of ethnic criteria. Furthermore, the instrumentalist approach of ethnic conflicts allows us to think that the Liberian civil war really an ethnic conflict, because Charles Taylor played on ethnic fiber of Gio and Mano to encourage them to enroll in a rebellion against President Samuel Doe and his Krahn ethnic group. Our second case-study, the Sierra Leonean civil war (1992-2002) does not revealed elements to talk of an ethnic conflict. In fact, the first cause of this civil war was a greed generated by diamond mineral deposit in a logic of economy of war (we will develop this point later). In our third case-study, the Guinean56 civil war of 2000, some elements allow us to talk about an ethnic war. In fact, Ted Gurr in his definition of ethnic wars integrates two elements: the State and the quest of independence. In the Guinean case, we observe that the mutineers backed by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) at the border region with Sierra Leone wanted to overthrow the Guinean President Lansana Conte, and then control the Guinean State. Furthermore, the second front of the Guinean civil war, the Forest region was the theatre of battles between the Liberian National Forces (essentially Gio and Mano) and Liberians dissidents (essentially Madingo). Then we can say that the Liberian civil war moved to Guinean territory, on an ethnic basis. Its important to notice that

55 56

The Liberian President Samuel Doe was from the Krahn ethnic Group. We are talking about Guinea-Conakry which experienced a civil war in 2000. In reality, this war is the move of the Liberian civil war.

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Madingo live on both sides of Guinean Liberian borders. This is why Liberians dissidents received support from Guinean Madingo. The Guinean civil war of 2000 is an identity conflict also because it covers an aspect of religious cleavage. In fact, Madingo are Muslims whereas Gio and Mano are Christians, and this religious cleavage has been an aggravating factor in the conflict. The analyse of our fourth case-study, the Cte dIvoire civil war began in 2002 reveals that this conflict covers ethnic dimensions. In fact, the ethnic concept of ivoirit57 crystallised oppositions inside of the politic arena of Cte dIvoire, what gave birth in September 2002, to a civil war. This civil war will divided the country into two parts the North and the South - , by opposing the National Army of Cte dIvoire to a coalition of rebel groups founded on ethnic bases, the Forces Nouvelles58. This coalition of rebels movements toughened the identity discourse by highlighting the question of ethnicity and the religious cleavage between the North of the country (Muslim part) and the South (Christian part). According to instrumentalist theory on ethnic conflict, we can say that the civil war of Cte dIvoire is really an ethnic conflict. But the civil war of Cte dIvoire covers others dimensions with the presence of foreign mercenaries and also with some economic aspects of the conflict.

B/ Warlordism, economy of war and socio-economic conflicts in West Africa since the end End of the Cold War
The analysis of armed conflicts in West Africa since the end of Cold War shows different main points, among which the phenomenon of warlordism, the question of economy of war, but also the problematic of socio-economic clashes. Historically, warlodism corresponds to the end of the Qing dynasty and the birth of the Republic of China, a period strongly characterized by the reign of the warlords in the Asian continent. A warlord is a person with power who has the military control over a sub national area due to armed forces loyal to him and not to a central authority. In the case of West African conflicts, the phenomenon of warlordism is related to the question of economy of war. According to William Reno, warlords are self-interested actors out for their own wealth
57

The concept of ivoirit will be theorized and developed by the entourage of the previous President of Cte dIvoire Henri Konan BEDIE, in 1995 58 The Forces Nouvelles is a gathering of three rebels movements in Cte dIvoire, namely MPIGO (Mouvement Populaire Ivoire du Grand-Ouest), MPCI (Mouvement Populaire pour la Cte dIvoire) and MJP (Mouvement pour la Justice et la Paix).

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and power, who avoid acquiring fixed assets that they have to guard, and who fail to provide any public goods (e.g. security, infrastructure, education). He asserts that warlords are interested only in providing private goods and services to recipients who have been carefully chosen. In his view, warlords dont want to be hampered by either free riders or competitors who might use public goods against them and thereby sap their power59. Sasha Lezhnev similarly argues that warlords are self-interested portraying them as one-dimensional thugs who engage in indiscriminate violence against the population they control60. The Liberian civil war is the best case-study on this phenomenon of warlordism in West Africa, with the case of Charles Taylor. Charles Mc Arthur G. Taylor has been the most prominent warlord during the first Liberian civil war, from 1989 to 1996. In December 1989 when his rebel group the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) attacked Liberia from Cte dIvoire, the objective was to overthrow the President Samuel DOE. President Samuel Doe finally was overthrown by a former Lieutenant of Taylors NPFL Prince Johnson, who then formed his own rebel group, the Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia (INPFL) and took the control of the capital Monrovia. The INPFL and the NPFL will fought during many years between them, but also against partisans of the former President Samuel Doe. This situation dived Liberia in a civil war which favoured the development of the warlordism in the country, especially by Charles Taylor. In fact, during this civil war in Liberia, Charles Taylor controlled the major part of the country, organized and supported various traffics (traffics of timber, rubber, diamonds, and arms dealing ). This parallel state61 served the personal interests of Charles Taylor and his lieutenants. Then, according to William Reno and Sasha Lezhnev definitions, we can say that the Liberian civil war the first one has been a privilege theatre of warlordism. In a paper published in the review International Security (winter 2006) about the study of the phenomenon of warlordism, Marten Kimberly Zisk emphasized on the role of loyalty and reciprocity in sustaining the power of the most successful warlords. She wrote that warlords need militias to support them and they have a hard time maintaining those militias if their men

59

RENO William, Warlord politics and African States, cited by Kimberly Zisk MARTEN, Warlordism in Comparative perspective, International Security, Volume 31 Number 3, Winter 2006/2007 p.47 60 LEZHNEV Sasha, Crafting Peace : Strategy to Deal with Warlords in Collapsing States, Lexington Books, U.S, 2006 p.2-3, cited by Kimberly Zisk MARTEN, Warlordism in Comparative perspective, International Security, Volume 31 Number 3, Winter 2006/2007 p.47 61 William Reno qualifies this situation as a parallel State. For more details, see RENO William, Warlord politics and African States, cited by Kimberly Zisk MARTEN, Warlordism in Comparative perspective, International Security, Volume 31 Number 3, Winter 2006/2007 p.47

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leave when someone else offers them more money62. We agree with this analysis, because the question of loyalty relies on the charisma of the warlord is essential to the survival of his power. On this point, we can also say that the Liberian civil war was really characterized by the phenomenon of warlordism because warlords as Charles Taylor knew how to maintain their militias, even if one of Charles Taylors lieutenants Prince Johnson left him. Our second case-study the Sierra Leonean civil war was also characterized by the phenomenon of warlordism. In fact, Foday Sankoh the leader of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) was another famous warlord in West Africa, who developed an important economy of wars system. His main activities were traffic of diamonds, timber forests, rubber, drugs and arms dealing. The case of the Sierra Leonean civil war is a good illustration of the important link between warlordism and economy of war. The analysis of our two others case-study - Guinea and Cte dIvoire does not reveal the existence of the warlordism phenomenon. But the question of economy of war is very present in the case of civil war in Cte dIvoire, whereas the Guinean civil war has a more ethnic logic. As we said, another important dimension of civil wars in West Africa is the economy of war. Generally, the term economy of war expresses the economic dimensions of an armed conflict, namely the mobilization of resources to wage war, the financing of war, and the dividends of war etc. There are two theories to analyze economic civil wars: The theory of economic predation developed by Collier and Hoeffler63 The theory of neo patrimonial developed by William Reno 64

The theory of economic predation postulates that all societies are mined by grievances but the risks of a civil war are determined by the feasibility of a rebellion. The second school of thought, the theory neo patrimonial, claims that the chronic diversion of economic state resources by the elite led to a creation of shadow states. In these states corruption and coercion are privileged modes of governance. When the political class is not

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MARTEN Kinberky Zisk, Warlordism in Comparative perspective, International Security, Volume 31 Number 3, Winter 2006/2007 p.48 63 COLLIER, Paul and HOEFFLER Anke. Greed and Grievance in Civil Wars DevelopmentResearchGroup, World Bank,2002. On the same question, see COLLIER,Paul and HOEFFLER Anke. On the incidence of Civil Wars in Africa , The Journal of Conflict Resolution Vol 46 N3, p. 13-28 64 RENO William, Shadow State and the Political Economy of Civil War in BERDAL Mats and DAVID M. Malone (Eds) Greed and Grievance: Economic Agendas in Civil Wars Boulder: Lynne Rienner Pubisher, 2000 p.43-68

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able more to embezzled public founds, but is not able to repress contestation, the violent conflicts are to be anticipated.65 So, the question of economy of war in civil conflicts is not a new research subject. In 1998, David Keen explained that in some cases, violence is more an opportunity than a problem. Then, unlike Clausewitzs assertion66, the war becomes an instrument of enrichment67.This notion of opportunity shows us that war does not necessary have negative consequences on the economy. According to David Keen, violence - armed conflicts - covers seven functions which have positive impacts on economy: the pillage, the securitys income, the monopolistic control of trade, the labour forces exploitation, the land-grabbing, the embezzlement of international aid, and the institutionalization of benefits allowed to militaries68. And this economy of war favours the phenomenon of warlordism. Thus, civil wars become then money-making activities for rebellions and peace is not appreciated by the rebels. The Liberian and Sierra Leonean civil wars, because characterized by the phenomenon of warlordism also cover dimensions of economy of war. In fact, the warlords are preoccupied by their own interests, and want to make money by all ways. As a consequence, they adopt an economic predation (pillage and enrichment) as explained by Collier and Hoeffler. In the particular case of the Sierra Leonean civil war, this dimension of economy of war gave birth to a grave phenomenon: the problem of child soldiers. In fact, the engagement of child soldiers by warlords in civil wars is very interesting in an economic perspective. Peter Lock69 explains that for teenagers being a soldier is the best way to achieve a social insertion. It is also a rational choice for warlords, because child soldiers are less expensive and more impressionable in comparison with mercenaries by example. The analysis of our third case-study about the question of economy of war shows that the Guinean civil war happened in 2000 did not cover really economic dimensions.
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RENO William, Shadow State and the Political Economy of Civil War , Cited by David Forest in Causes et motivations de la guerre civile au Libria (1989-1997) p.11, Essay wrote to be graduate of a Master in International Relations, Institut qubcois des Relations Internationales, University of Laval. Available on : http://www.hei.ulaval.ca/fileadmin/hei/documents/documents/Section_Etudes_Plans_de_cours/Essais_et_memoi res/EssaiForestMRI.pdf 66 In his book Vom Kriege Clausewitz explains that war is the continuation of politic by other methods. For more details, see CLAUSEWITZ Carl Von, On War The completed translation by Colonel J.J Graham, published by N. Trbner, London, 1873 67 KEEN David, The Economic functions of Violence in Civil Wars, Adelphi paper 320 Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2000 p.11 68 KEEN David, Incentives and disincentives for violence War in BERDAL Mats and DAVID M. Malone (Eds) Greed and Grievance: Economic Agendas in Civil Wars Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publisher, 2000 p.19-42 69 Cited by MUNKLER, Herfried Les Guerres Nouvelles, Traduit de lAllemand par Catherine Obtais, Paris, Editions Alvik, Fvrier 2008, p. 131

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On the other hand, the armed conflict which broke out in 2002 Cte dIvoire shows the emergence of an economy of war in this country. This economy of war was organised through many fields. The first one is the road racket. In fact, with the lockout of Abidjans port after the beginning of the conflict in September 2002, the suspension of railroad traffic led to new interests in the road traffic. And the revival of interest sharpened the road racket phenomenon. This phenomenon was noted in rebel zones but also in the zones controlled by the governmental forces. These rackets were a good opportunity of enrichment for political leaders (leaders of rebellion, and also political leaders of the official government). The second field of economy of war in the armed conflict in Cte dIvoire from 2002 is the question of illicit traffics (arms dealing, traffics of rubber, timber forests, gold ). Even if this phenomenon was not a new, the beginning of this conflict was marked by various illegal traffics with important benefits for arms dealers, politicians and mafia networks in the sub region. These traffics are organised in a trans border logic, generally with the support of rebel groups and politicians. The armed conflict in Cte dIvoire also covers socio-economic aspects. The main one is the question of access to estate. According to Jean-Pierre Derriennic, socio-economic civil wars are the one in which defined groups are opposed by the place of their members in an economic activity70. In the case of Cte dIvoire, the problem of access to estate polarized opposition inside of farmers social group, which led to the toughening of difference between indigenous and foreign-born populations. It is important to notice that at the following day after Cte dIvoires independence, the first President of the country Flix Houphout-Boigny started an important farming policy, which made of Cte dIvoire the first exporter of cocoa bean. To implement his policy, he encouraged the immigration of workers from the border countries, and consecrated the famous theory: the land belongs to the one who farms it. As a result, many people from Burkina Faso, Mali and Guinea went to Cte dIvoire to work in farming plantations. But after few decades, many problems of access to estate appeared. And this situation was aggravated by the instrumentalization of the concept of ivoirit by politicians. Ultimately, as Jean-Pierre Derriennic explained, the competition between social groups promoted the conflicts. In the case of Cte dIvoire, the issue of accessing to estate worsened the conflict.

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DERRIENIC, Jean-Pierre Les guerres civiles, Paris, Presses de Science Po, Avril 2001, p.49

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We clearly observed that armed conflicts in West Africa since the end of the Cold War cover economic dimensions through their socio-economic aspects but also phenomena such as warlordism or the development of a genuine economy of war.

Conclusion
The present etude on armed conflicts in West Africa since the end of the Cold War reveals the existence of a particular form of conflictuality in this sub region. This particularity is noted at different levels. Firstly, an authentic system of war appeared in West Africa in 1989 with Liberian civil war as epicentre. This system resulted in a cycle of violence caused and supported by sub regional politico-economic networks which accumulated important benefits from these conflicts. Moreover, there are truly regional dimensions and cross-borders aspects of West African conflicts since the end of Cold War. Secondly, each conflict happened in West Africa since 1989 is very complex. In fact, our analysis leads us to identify different variables: The issue of ethnicity and religious cleavage which is present in our four casesstudies: Liberia (1989-1997), Sierra Leone (1991-2002), Guinea (2000) and Cte dIvoire (2002-2007). About this point, its important to underline the role of political leaders who instrumentalize and toughen the ethnic and religious differences. The phenomenon of warlords and economy of war are also main characteristics of these conflicts, especially in the cases of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Cte dIvoire. Furthermore, socio-economic aspects as explained by Jean-Pierre Derriennic must be taken into account. This aspect highlights the important link between development and security, and moreover, the direct relation between socio-economic development and peace. As a consequence, what solutions can we propose to stop this particular form of conflictuality in West Africa since 1989? Our study reveals that West African contemporary conflicts, generally are not national conflicts, but comprise a transborder and regional dynamic. As a result, to prevent these conflicts or to solve them, it is necessary to address them in a regional approach. For this issue, our theoretical response is a liberal approach: cooperative security. Even if the study of armed conflicts has been largely addressed by realist school of thought, their solutions do not correspond to our cases-studies. The most appropriate response to

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conflictuality in West Africa since the end of the Cold War is in our opinion, the cooperative security. According to Thomas Weiss in a context of cooperative security, there is a wish to share the costs and the responsibilities by using international institutions and/or regional available mechanisms.71 John Ruggie considers this concept as a way to reduce risks of conflicts between potential enemies72. According to David Mares, one of the advantages of cooperative security is that, unlike of collective security, it is compatible with heterogeneous communities. Inside of a collective security system, members must trust in the ability of the group to assure the security in the event of an aggression. It is important for members of this system to have approximately the same abilities defence. However, the cooperative security system implies a continuous negotiation in order to assure optimal benefits to actors, but also to share the tasks in compliance with abilities of everyone. Finally, what is important in cooperative security is this sense of belonging to a global and a common entity. All West African countries, and over, all populations of West Africa in the frame of a cooperative security should belong to a common entity. In practical terms, West African countries should build a strong regional entity which will have a special structure in charge of security issues. To that end the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), has already established the ECOMOG (ECOWAS Ceasefire Monitoring Observer Group). But to handle the form of conflictuality born in West Africa since the end of the Cold War, West African countries must make a step ahead by creating a genuine entity of cooperative security. For this issue, they can pool their military resources by creating a sub regional army. However, this dynamic must be associated to regional policies of development, because to achieve a positive peace73 in their sub region, West African countries must implement real socio-economic policies of development, with an important place given to the access to education. A socio-economic development which guarantees to all, decent life conditions: access to food and water. Moreover, populations must return to African deep values of hospitality, solidarity and tolerance in order to learn again the vivre ensemble.

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WEISS Thomas G. / FORSYTHE David / COATE Roger A., The United Nations and Changing World Politics (Second Edition), Boulder, Westview Press, 1997, p.273 72 RUGGIE John G. Winning the Peace : America and World Order in the New Era, New York, Columbia University Press, 1996, p.81 73 John Galtung defines positive peace as a proactive peace, which allows a real resolution of conflicts and leads to a positive development. For more details, see GALTUNG Johan, Twenty-five Years of Peace Research: Ten Challenges and Some Responses Journal of Peace Research, Vol. 22, 1985, p.145-146

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