Religion in African Civil Wars

This paper focuses on questions concerning the role of religion in Africa’s civil wars. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) stated in 1999 that “Africa is the most conflict ridden region of the World and the only region in which the number of armed conflicts is on the increase” (SIPRI 1999). Africa seems especially prone to civil wars, as Table 1 indicates. Bealey (1999: 58) defines the concept of “civil war” rather generally. To him, it is “a period of sustained armed fighting in a country between two groups contending for supreme coercive power. In all the classic examples the matter for dispute was the nature and/or boundaries of the state. Ideological undertones are common”. Elbadawi and Sambanis (2000: 6) offer a more focused set of characteristics of civil war. For them, it is an armed conflict that (1) results in 1,000 or more deaths; (2) puts into dispute the sovereignty of an internationally recognised state; (3) takes place within that state’s recognised frontiers; (4) engages the state as one of the main combatants; (5) involves rebel groups possessing the ability to mount an organised opposition; and (6) involves “parties concerned with the prospect of living together in the same political unit after the end of the war.”