CAUSE_OF_CONFLCIT_(2).pptx

Types, Nature, historical trajectories
and causes of Conflict in Africa
(PART II)
Tadesse Aklog

Causes of Conflict In Africa
Central Themes
 Historical contexts of conflict in Africa
Types of conflict
 Causes of conflicts and implications for its
resolution
 Identity conflicts and their resolution

I. Historical context of conflict in Africa
• political, economic and social forces together
constitute or provide an environment within which
conflicts occur;
• yet, these environments change according to a
particular historical period thus affecting both the
nature and extent of conflicts;

• argue that the increase in the number and type of
conflicts is directly related to the specific dominant
forces extant during each decade.
• Abdala Bujra (2002) have identified phases :
1. Colonial phase
2. The nationalist-euphoric phase (1960-1970);
3. The Cold War phase (1970-1989, including the SAP
decade of 1980-1990); and
4. The transition to democracy phase (1990-2000)..

• In most cases, the forces which are dominant in
these different phases and which, have affected
the conflicts of the time, continue and interact with
the forces in the next phase.
1.Colonial phase
• Conducive conditions to and directly contributed to
conflicts:
a) Divide and rule- the colonial powers deliberately
selected particular ethnic groups and gave them
preferential treatment, as the new chiefs, as new
local administrators and civil servants, as recruits
into the police and the colonial army.

b) The economic disruption
Individual ownership of land, the development of an
agricultural economy for both internal market and
for export through large-scale plantations as well as
small-scale farming inevitably led to shortage of
land in fertile areas, economic differentiations,
landless peasants and inevitable tension and
conflict over land and other resources
C) The deliberate creation of ethnicity through
administrative and resource allocation. Ethnicity
serve as a legitimizing force where local chiefs were
purposefully appointed to serve the colonial force.

II. The Phase of the Nationalist Governments, 1960-
1970
 Focus has been given to nation-building process :an
attempt was done to shift loyalty of citizens to the
state than the respective ethnic groups.
 those western educated elites postured themselves
as ‘neutral actors’ while they were operating by the
old fashion.
 marked by ethnic rivalries
Executive dominance and the system of patron
clientalism

iii. African Conflicts and the Cold War, 1970 -1989
Marked by:
a) the direct intervention of the Cold War rivalry in
Africa both in terms of ideological competition and
actual military and political interventions;
b) the failure of the nationalist governments to
deliver what they had promised during the struggle
for independence and when they took over power;
c) the deterioration of the economies of most
countries and the dramatic increase of population
in all countries;

• The Cold War factor was critical during this period.
During the euphoric phase of the 1960s, many
African governments practiced some form of
democracy.
• However, by the early 1970s most of the same
ruling elite had decided that such democracy
simply encouraged “tribalism” or ethnicity which
would lead to internal conflicts, the disintegration
of the new countries and the negation of their
efforts at nation-building

• Consequently, elites took up the following :
1) Most ruling parties thus soon adopted a one-
party system of rule as part of their effort to have
a strong government which would be able to
keep the country together and stem out tribalism.
2) Another argument for a strong state was to
enable it to plan the economy and to intervene in
its implementation so as to bring about quicker
economic development.
3) these moves towards a strong state and
controlled economy, deteriorated into strong
oppressive states whose ruling elite used the
institutions of the state to accumulate wealth and

Types of conflicts in Africa
Conflicts can be categorized in various ways
depending on the type of criteria one uses.
• For example Salim (1999) classifies conflicts in
Africa as follows:
• boundary and territorial conflicts,
• civil wars and internal conflicts having international
repercussions,
• succession conflicts
• political and ideological conflicts,
• others related to transhumance and irredentism.

• Some other scholars classify conflicts into :
(a) loot seekers and
(b) justice-seekers,
Such classification is based more on value judgment
rather than analytical criteria.
The above classification on the basis of what they
consider to be the objectives of the rebel groups as
criterion for classifying conflicts.
• Others such as Bujra(2002) in his working paper ‘
African Conflicts: Their Causes and Their Political and
Social Environment’, classify conflicts on the bases of
the actors involved in a conflict.
• Still others are concerned only with conflicts in which
the state is a party to the conflict

• Still others has classified on the basis of the
scale/scope of the conflict .
1.Conventional warfare-
2.Factional warfare
3. Ethnic and genocidal war
4. Regional conflicts

Conventional war
It was fought with regular troops along a defined
series of fronts.
Targets and objectives were primarily military and
strategic. The war made extensive use of expensive
technology such as heavy artillery and jet fighters.
The increasing cost of such warfare has tended to
make these conflicts self-limiting in Africa.
e.g.The conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea was the
only conventionally fought war in Africa during 90s

Factional warfare
Factional wars are fluid by nature.
There is rarely a defined front line and fighting is
frequently opportunistic rather than strategic.
Warfare is low tech and small arms are the main
weapons.
Such wars are not costly and can easily be sustained
without external support.
Frequently these conflicts move rapidly from the
original cause to revolve around the exploitation of
commercial, mineral and natural resources.

3. Genocide and ethnic based conflict.
Features
 Centrally directed and involving the virulent use of
propaganda,
 these conflicts spread like wildfire and leave a huge
death toll, massive displacement, fear and confusion.
 tends to be extremely low tech using knives, machetes
and occasionally small arms.
 A distinguishing characteristic is the speed with which
genocidal attacks take place and the high degree of
central organization and planning involved

4. The "new warfare" – regional conflict
All three elements of warfare have coalesced into
what can be described as Africa’s "new warfare" –
regional conflict.
In this type of conflict:
 conventional state forces are frequently engaged in
the protection of key installations, or may find
themselves engaged in capital-intensive, attritional
warfare with other states.
 Extensive use is also made of factional forces that
act as proxies and as a forward line of protection for
conventional forces.

These proxy forces are encouraged to be self-
sustaining through the exploitation of natural
resources.
Ethnic conflict has increasingly been sanctioned or
exploited to gain support for the continuation of
the conflict

The trend towards regional conflict continues.
The war in the DRC involves the armed forces of
eight countries while the DRC has sought to take
the war back into Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda.
 the war in Sierra Leone has developed a similar
regional dimension, as has the prolonged conflict in
Angola.

• The following discussion is based on the discussion
of Bujra`s work
• Accordingly there are two broad categories of
African conflicts:
1) inter-state
2) Intra state

Types of conflicts
I. Inter-State Conflicts
 almost all the inter-state conflicts were caused by
claims over borders.
• many borders were imprecise;
• some borders were straddled by a large ethnic group
considered strategic by one side of the border;
• some borders passed through strategic terrain desired
by countries on both sides of the border;
• some borders passed by areas rich with mineral
resources all of which fell on one side of the border,
thus excluding the other country

 Thus the first border war was between Algiers and
Morocco immediately after independence (1964/65).
The latest and strangest border dispute is between
Ethiopia and Eritrea.
2 Internal Conflicts
• these are presently the majority of conflicts in Africa,
especially since the end of the post cold-war period.
These conflicts can be divided into two broad
categories:
(i) those conflicts in which the state is a party to the
conflict;
(ii) conflicts between groups within the country and
which the state is not a party to.

• 2.1 A Rebellion to Overthrow a Government
 aim to overthrow a government, are the most
common type of political conflict in most African
countries;
 generally initiated by urban elites who are
dissatisfied with the way the government had
treated them and their region or ethnic group
It could be supported within or by outside state

Conflicts between state and rebellions vary in
 intensity,
 scale,
 and duration
What factors determine intensity, scale & duration?
o the depth of the grievances,
o the political indoctrination of the supporters,
o the quality of the leadership,
o the strength and weakness of the state,
o the seriousness of support from neighboring states and
the outside powers.

• During the cold war, these types of rebellion were
favorites of the super powers;
e.g.
1. The conflicts in the Sudan
o had strong support from within and without
2) Ethiopia before 1990
 had support from within
Had support outside(Super -power+Neghoubring
countries Arab Countries Eritrean secession force)

3) Angola
In Angola, the control of the diamond mines is very
important for the sustenance of UNITA, MLA
2.2 Secessionist Rebellion
 the rebellions seeking secession are often driven by
their perceived political, economic and cultural
oppression.
Both the African governments and the international
community are generally not sympathetic to
secessionist rebellions.

 very few secessionist movements have succeeded
compared to those rebellions which aim at
overthrowing their governments.
Examples;
1) The Biafra in Nigeria that ended in catastrophic
failure.
2) The Eritrean war, on the other hand, succeeded.
3) Guinea Bissau, which separated peacefully from
the Cape Verde.

2.3 Coup d’Etat
• Violent change of government by the military is one
of the most common methods of achieving power.
• there have been roughly 80 such violent changes
of government in Sub-Saharan Africa during the
last four decades.
2.4 Cold-War Sustained Conflicts
During the 1970s and 1980s, the vicious
competition between the super-powers in Africa.

The rivalry and competition took various forms:
o supporting governments,
o overthrowing governments
o supporting/opposing political parties,
 examples
In the Congo of 1964, the Americans intervened to
remove Lumumba and install Mobutu,
 In Somalia, it led to the collapse of the state.
 In Angola, it has led to the long and tragic civil war.
Similarly in Mozambique (through the proxy of
apartheid South Africa),

2.5 Many-Sided Conflicts to Seize State Power
/regional complex conflicts
 several rebellions emerge independently, each of
which is trying to capture the capital and take over
power.
 In the process, each of these rebellions form
temporary alliances which do not last more than a
few months, and at the same time fight other
groups in different fronts.

each of the rebel movements is supported by a
different neighboring (or distant) country :
 financial support,
 supplies of arms,
 diplomatic support,
 giving refuge to the various levels of the leadership,
etc.
Furthermore, each patron of a rebel group has its
own interest, mainly in terms of its potential
influence in the future government if its group
succeeds in getting to power

What could be the enabling conditions for this to
type of conflict to happen?
(i) a very weak government;
(ii) a deterioration and deep malaise of the economy:
o widespread poverty
o a large pool of unemployed, landless and aimless
youth;
(iii) the state and its few institutions are the sole
means of accumulating wealth;
.

(iv) the availability and control by the state of easily
exploitable natural resources
(v) deep divisions in a stratified society based on
ethnicity, race, religion, and economic oppression
of various groups by a ruling class/group.
 These conditions enable various competing elite
to mobilize their respective groups in order to
gain power by seizing state power by force

 examples of this type of situation are: Sierra
Leone , Liberia, Congo Brazzaville and DRC.
2.6 Rural Conflicts over Resources
These are conflicts over grazing land, over cattle,
over water points and over cultivable land.
These conflicts go back a long way, in some cases to
the pre-colonial period.
However, (1) major changes have been introduced
such as changes over land laws which often
contradict customary laws, confiscation of large
tracts of land for ranching and large-scale farming,
and increase in population.

Most important is (2) the rise of rural inequalities
– between rich and poor/landless farmers, between
rich ranchers and poor cattle owners.
Furthermore, environmental deterioration in land
productivity and scarcity of water
These changes have led to a considerable
competition for the scarce resources of land
(cultivable and grazing, including water).

2.7 Urban Violence and Conflict
Urban violence is now becoming more common than
in the past.
 Population is increasing dramatically in urban
centers,
 the economies of most African countries have been
deteriorating thus raising urban unemployment to a
very high level
These are sufficient condition s for the conflict

The urban centers, especially the capital is also
where;
(i) a large number of the volatile university students
generally concentrate,
(ii) where the opposition political parties practice
their opposition to the governments,
(iii) where the media (both local and international) is
ever present in search

Explaining Causes of conflict in Africa
• In this Section, we will look briefly at the various
explanations given by some writers and organizations
on the causes of conflicts in Africa.
A draft consulation documents of Britain has
identifies the cause of conflicts into three
1-primary/root cause
2. the secondary causes- that enable and sustain
conflict
3. the tertiary causes -the drivers that hinder
resolution

I. Root causes
1.1. Inequality :
Inequality between groups is probably the foremost
cause of conflict in Africa.
It is inequality between groups – rather than
individuals – that increases the prospects of violent
conflict.
It exists on three mutually reinforcing levels:
economic, social and political.
o Unequal access to power perpetuated a similar
lack of access to resources and revenue.

o Where group inequality occurs there is also
differential access to education .This plays a key
role in sustaining inequalities.
Where a society is divided into two pre-dominant
groups, growing inequality between them often
leads to conflict

1.2. State collapse: Characterized by the following:
 predatory government operating through coercion,
corruption and personality politics to secure
political power and control of resources.
The state finds itself unable any longer to provide
basic services or security to its people and loses its
legitimacy.
The collapse of infrastructure completes the break
up of the state.
 coupled with the use of ethnic violence creates the
conditions in which violence becomes self-
sustaining and factional warfare develops,

this does not necessarily result in resolution of
conflict.
Rather it leads to the creation of “shell states”,
where the leadership wishes to maintain the fiction
of statehood.
When this happens, state building will be a complex
task and the process of democratisation can easily
become a vehicle for consolidating personal rule.

1.3. Economic decline and economic shock
 Continuous economic decline plays a major part in
state collapse and conflict. Economic shock is a
more direct and potent cause.
• This can take various forms ranging from natural
catastrophe to sudden large shifts in terms of trade.
• The Ethiopian famine of 1974 was the main factor
in the overthrow of Haile Selasse’s government and
the violence that ensued.

• Famine can cause mass displacement increasing
pressure on scarce resources. Other economic
shocks have similar effects.
• The sudden shift in the terms of trade in Nigeria in
1992/3 halved Nigeria’s income, introduced
hyperinflation and led to violence and the
overthrow of the government

1.4. History
Many conflicts occur where there is a tradition of
resolving problems by violent means.
Political violence is entrenched and the instruments
of the state such as the army, the police and the
judiciary sustain the process.
A past pattern of conflict is one of the best
predictors of future conflict. Deeply entrenched
historical patterns of violence are amongst the most
difficult to resolve as they require major societal
and political change

1.5. Natural resource wealth
Africa accommodates two types of resource
based conflict:
1.wars of resource scarcity ,and
2. wars of abundance
The most common conflicts of scarcity relate to
the control of grazing and water rights for
nomadic people.

Countries whose economies are dependent on
natural resources such as oil and minerals, face a
very high risk of conflict.
In these wars of abundance, groups compete for
control of these resources, which become the
“prize” for controlling the state and can lead to
coups, attract foreign interventions or even could
call for secessionist movement

ii. Secondary Causes
2.1. Unemployment, lack of education and population
pressure
Throughout Africa, factional conflict has drawn on a
pool of marginalized or socially excluded young men.
2.2. The abuse of ethnicity
 Political leaders and belligerents in Africa have made
increasing use of ethnic hatred. Such abuse prolongs
conflict, creates long term divisions that reduce the
effectiveness of peace building efforts.
Even peace time election could lead to riot due to the
manipulation of a groups culture by political elites

2.3. Availability of arms
The ready availability of small arms in Africa is a
major factor in sustaining and fuelling conflict
3. Territory causes
3.1. Regional and interlocking conflicts
3.2. Lack of guarantors
internal conflicts are mostly resolved when the
parties involved have arrived at a stalemate,
frequently a political and military balance.
When either party to a conflict feels that it has a
perceived advantage or disadvantage, it continues
to fight.

3.3. Poor mediation
While the option for peaceful resolution
of conflict must always be available, poor mediation
processes can make the situation worse and prolong
conflict by giving combatants time to rearm and
reorganize

3.4. Misplaced humanitarian assistance
 There are increasing dangers that much needed
humanitarian assistance can cause wars to be
intensified or prolonged.
 Where wars are fought through factional or proxy
forces there is little recognition or respect for
international humanitarian standards.

 Such forces seek to control humanitarian assistance as
a means of conferring greater political legitimacy on
themselves and control over the population.
 Relief supplies may also provide the focus for increasing
tension and fighting between groups that receive
supplies and their neighbors
Summary
As we have seen, the causes of conflict are multiple and
interlocking ranging from economic, political, social and
cultural which can be categorized under internal and
external conditions of state. Furthermore the role of
colonialism and its legacy play paramount role to
partially understand the nature , actors and causes of
conflict.

• Accordingly, no single factor, actor or condition
could be attributed for such conflicts. That is,
neither cultural oppression, nor economic
competition or political exclusion could be a sole
factor.
• Context of Conflict in the past and contemporary
time

Conflict Resolution in Africa
The debate b/n justice or peace remains at
the center
1) Transitional justice Approach
• Transitional justice is an approach that can help
create the conditions for peace, security and
development. It refers to the set of judicial and
non-judicial measures implemented in different
jurisdictions to redress the legacies of massive
human rights abuses committed in times of violent
conflict.

• By trying to achieve accountability and giving redress to
the victims, transitional justice aims to demonstrate the
rights of victims, promote trust within civil society and
to strengthen the rule of law. Systemic human rights
violations affect the whole of society, not only the
victims.
• Transitional justice provides a means for states to fulfil
their duty to provide security for the populations, to
guarantee that violations will not recur, and to reform
institutions that were either complicit in or unable to
prevent abuses.
• Broader definitions of transitional justice also include
commemorative practices and memory work,
educational reform and providing connections with
longer term peace building processes.

The Pillars of Transitional Justice:
• Transitional justice measures rest on legal and moral
foundations, but how these obligations are satisfied varies
widely between contexts. The core inter-linked elements of
transitional justice are:
• Criminal prosecutions, bringing perpetrators considered
most responsible to justice.
• Reparations through which governments acknowledge and
redress the harms suffered. This may be through cash
payments or provision of services, and through symbolism
through public apologies, memorials, renaming of public
spaces for example.
• Institutional reform of state institutions that have been
responsible for the abuses such as armed forces, police and
courts, and to deconstruct the structures responsible for
abuses to prevent recurrence of human rights violations and
impunity.

2) Truth & Reconciliation Approach/ Truth
Commission
 adhoc official bodies that may be set up to
investigate a past history of human rights
violations over a certain period of time in a
particular country or in relation to a particular
conflict and make recommendations for the
future(Christie in Nhema, 2004

• Features
 Focus on patterns of abuses over periods of time in
the past rather than specific event in the present
 Operate for defined (predetermined period) and
cease to exist afterwards usually with the submission
of report
 Vested with some authority that enables them to
have good access to official information's
 Truth commissions don't have the power to
persecute or punish perpetrators of human rights
violations or make binding judicial pronouncement
 Do not have a power to implement or to
implementation of their recommendations

• So TC are not ordinary courts or special tribunals
formed at local or international level(e.g International
criminal tribunal for Rewanda )
Truth commissions should be able to find out exactly
find out exactly what happened where and when
Provide an opportunity for public hearing of the evil
and pains that has been inflicted resulted in official
record of truth
Provide victims and their relatives an opportunity to
tell their story and gain societal acknowledgment
their lose as acknowledgment is the first step towards
reconciliation and a key for healing process

• TRC reports usually provide the formal basis for
subsequent compensations victims and as preclude
for repetition of similar abuses in the future
Reconciliation
• it means finding a way to live alongside former
enemies - not necessarily to love them, or forgive
them, or forget the past in any way, but to coexist
with them, to develop the degree of cooperation
necessary to share our society with them, so that
we all have better lives together than we have had
separately (Desmone Tutu)

. South Africa Truth and Reconciliation Commission
 Regarded as the best model of TR that ushered south
African transition from more than 350 years old
apartheid to full-fledged with the sprit of unity and
reconciliation
 South African-back were excluded from political
economic participation for about 350 years. But real
institutionalization of apartheid was progressively put
in place when successive constitutions(1960,1961 and
1983) legally consolidated white hegemony that
excluded the vast majority of the population b/c of
colure their skin

• The system sanctioned ideologically justified injustices
• There was a thirty years armed resistance and the
system responded with repression, killings, torture,
massacre and imprisonment
• However due to int/l ptessure and domestic military
stalemate, Nelson Mandella and other political
prisoners were released
• and negotiated settlement eventually led to an interim
constitution in 1993 and the first multiparty elections in
April 1994.
• In the election, ANC was voted to power with Nelson
Mandela as the first democratically presidents.

• The interim constitution (act no 200)of 1993
included an epilogue with the heading ‘national
unity and reconciliation’ that provided amnesty
was to be granted in respect to acts, omissions and
offences associated with political objectives and
committed in the course of conflict of resource
• The enactment of the promotion of National unity
and reconciliation or TRC Act was the result of the
amnesty provision and the quest of the victims for
retributive sort of justice

The mandate of the commission
 To establish a complete picture of the causes,
nature and extent of the gross violations of human
rights committed
 Facilitate the granting of amnesty to persons who
make a full disclosure of all relevant fact relating to
acts
 Establish /make known the fate or whereabouts of
victims by granting them an opportunity to relate
their own account of the violence
 Recommend reparation measures in respect of
these violations

• Confronted with victims seeking retributive justice
and perpetrators seeking impunity by way of
amnesty ,TRC had to work hard to meet its political
objectives: unity and reconciliation
• Justice in its narrow sense of trial and punishment
was rejected
• A form of restorative which contained some
element of retributive justice in that truth was
told and the perpetrators of violent crime were
subjected to public exposure and shame.

General remarks
• In this respect, the TRC can be credited with
developing a new model for dealing with state
criminality which goes beyond the extreme of full
scale prosecution.
• The amnesty process was used as ‘ carrot’ to
induce perpetrators to tell the truth and the threat
of persecution for those who failed to tell the truth
acted as the stick

2. The Sierra Leonean Truth and reconciliation
Commission
• The conflict in Sierra Leone started in march 1991
as small rebel incursion on its border with Liberia by
little known group calling itself the Revolutionary
United Front(RUF),
• BUT over time ,degenerated into one of the
nastiest wars the world has witnessed: killing,
torturing, rap, torturing, maiming of thousands of
civilians, forceful recruitments of young children for
use as combatants

• Several attempts were made by Sec.Gen.of UN,
ECOWAS, OAU but the main breakthrough was came
with the so called -Lome peace agreement in July
1999 b/n the government and RUF.
• The agreement, among others, provided for the
creation of the TRC to facilitate the process of
reconciliation.
• Article 9 dealt with pardon and amnesty:
1) After signing the present agreement, the government
of SRL shall grant absolute, free pardon to all
combatants and collaborators in respect of any thing
done by them in pursuit of their objectives up to the
signing of the present agreement
(Fombad,2004,p.201)

2) To consolidate the peace and promote the cause of
national reconciliation, the government of sierra Leone
shall ensure that no official or judicial is taken against
any member of RUF irrespective of any thing done
from 1991 up to the signing of this agreement
3. It was also provided that a TRC was to be established
within ninety days of the signing of the agreement .
Article 26 says in part:
a truth and reconciliation commission shall be established
to address impunity, break the cycle of violence, provide a
forum for both the victims and perpetrators of human rights
violations to tell their story , get a clear picture of the past in
order to facilitate genuine healing and reconciliation…the
commission shall recommend measures to be taken for the
rehabilitation of victims of human rights violations

• Just like of the case in SA, persons who fail to
appear before the commission or to tell the truth ,
or attempt to mislead the commission or give
false information…can be referred to high court of
the country for trial and punishment.
• Despite all these, there was deep suspicion
between the government and RUF leadership
 the disarmament, demoblization and
reintegration(DDR) program was not progessing as
smoothly as had been anticipated: only 20%
combatants (out of 45000) had been disarmed

• In the process, the UN Security Council approved
plans for establishment of a special court to deal
with people accused of crimes against humanity
and war crimes.
• The plan was approved by the parliament in 2002
and that led to misinterpretation of the TRC as part
of the special court
– In fact, article 21(2) of this law states’ not withstanding
any other law , every natural person, corporations, or
other body created by or under the Serra Leone laws
shall comply with any direction specified in an order of
the special court.

• The special court act would presumably trump the
TRC act .
• So, the new court would ask even confidential
information from TRC
This and various factors were challenges before the
truth and reconciliation attempts to provide
sustainable peace
3. The Nigerian Human rights violations
investigations commissions(1999)
 Nigeria after wining its independence in 1960
entered into civil war(1967-70) where more than a
million people was lost

 Since 1970, the country had been ruled by military
for more than thirty years
 In May 1999, Olusengo Obasango, a former military
leader, who had spent three years in prison during
the regime of General Sani Abacha, was elected
president through a democratic poll.
 established the Human Rights investigation
commission to investigate past human rights
violations committed between 19 January 1966
and 28 may 1999

• Initially the commission was required to cover
human right violations committed b/n 1984 to 1999
but the reaction of the int’l community was that the
president wished to by pass the Human right
violations under his leadership (1976-79)
• The commission was created by legal order, and had
controversy with the parliament
• Scope was wide including corruption cases

• Weaknesses
1) There was no legal incentive in the form of amnesty,
for perpetrators to come forward and tell the truth
2) The commission could not guarantee that
perpetrators confession and guilty plea will not be
used against them as evidence in the court, be locally
or internationally after the compilations of the report
3) Although president Obasanjo appeared twice before
the commission to defend himself against allegations
of human right violations while he was military leader
, the commission was unable to compel prominent
suspects , especially the three military leaders

As General Muhammadu Buhari, , Babangida and
Abdulsalmi Abubakar to appear before it .
Major output of the report
1) Compensation in cash to be given to victims and
their family, though no mention was done as to the
exact amount.
2) President apology: Obasanjo publicly apologized to
all the victims on behalf of the various Nigerian
government in power since 1960

• Ethiopia
• Ethiopia established Special Persecutor’s office (SPO)
during TGE to research and report on human rights
violations and other abuses of power committed during
Mengistu’s 17 year rule and bring to justice those
responsible for human right violations.
• After nearly 2000 officials of the former regime were
arrested, 1700 were accused of involvement in
genocide, war crimes or crimes against humanity.
• Besides trying suspects , the SPDs mandate also
charged it with establishing a historical record as well
as gathering , organizing and disseminating
information.

• Can we consider SPO as truth commission in
Ethiop? Why?

• Indigenous conflict resolution mechanism in Africa
 aims at mending wrongs through cultural norms
Restoring relationships
 focus compensatory justice than retributory
justice

Assessment
1) Group Assignment on (for submission)
• Experience of Ethiopia
• Experience of Nigeria
• Experience of South Africa
• Experience of Rwanda
• Democratic Congo
• Liberia
• Cameroon
• Rwanda

Individual assignments
2) Article Review
3)Chapter review

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