Responding to conflict in Africa

1. In 1990, the Secretary General of the OAU presented a report to the OAU council of Ministers on the changes taking place in the world and their implications for Africa. In this, he stated that " the strongest likelihood does exist for the emergence of a new geopolitical balance of forces as well as a new international economic order that could further debilitate and marginalise Africa." The OAU fears were well founded. Conflict became more widespread through the 1990s. Economic marginalisation weakened highly centralised states. The inability to provide minimal levels of service delivery or to provide domestic security provoked the fragmentation of the state. Internal conflict increased dramatically throughout the 1990s. In extreme cases, fragmentation encouraged the formation and proliferation of splinter groups, which in turn divided into warring factions. The very nature of conflict changed. The civilian population increasingly became the target of conflict in factional wars and subject to particularly high levels of violence and abuse. This resulted in massive displacement as well as social and economic distress.