COVID-19 Conflict & Resilience Monitor – 6 October 2021

In May 2018 at the inaugural meeting of the Lake Chad Basin Governors’ Forum for Regional Cooperation on Stabilization, Peacebuilding and Sustainable Development, governors of the region, in recognition of their preeminent role as agencies of development and stabilization, affirmed their wish to remain central to efforts at stabilizing the region. 

The limited responses to the on-going crisis in Eswatini demonstrate how narrow understandings of conflict ignore armed violence in non-war zones. By expanding the interpretation of conflict, in policy and practice, the transformative promise and the conflict prevention potential of the women, peace and security agenda for non-war zones, like Eswatini, become possible. While emaSwati have expressed frustration against the lack of political freedoms, and have called for democratic reforms for decades, a wave of unprecedented protests met by disproportionate state violence erupted in the kingdom in June 2021. Since then, the country’s contrived reputation as “peaceful and unproblematic” has begun to unravel.  

The Sahel is a crowded region from a geopolitical perspective. There are several different international military missions, and more than 7 countries are involved in development and security projects. At the same time the actions of many different kinds of non-state actors are undermining the region’s stability. In analysing the different issues at stake in the area, as well as the wide number of actors involved in them, the over simplistic narrative of the so-called “scramble for Africa” does not adequately address the power games in the region. From a general perspective it can be said that every actor in the Sahel is walking on a tight rope trying to achieve limited objectives, without remaining stuck in the many complexities of the local political milieu.

Since the onset of COVID-19, global food prices have rocketed, putting pressure on the world’s most fragile countries. The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) believes that ‘soaring prices – and growing insecurity – could foment further social unrest in countries already facing political turmoil.’ Governments must act fast to ensure their people are fed and avoid conflict the continent cannot afford.