War and Famine in Africa

The report argues that the international provision of welfare and relief is no longer adequate to deal with the consequences of conflict: the whole system is in urgent need of reform to establish a contractual relation between recipient governments, official donors, and NGOs based upon a revision of the rules of war.

This study shows how internal wars are fought on a terrain of semi-subsistence economies, with the result that the traditional strategies of coping with famine are destroyed. Up to half all the people who suffer from food insecurity in Africa have been affected by war. Local conflict is a long-term and growing problem, made worse by the continents shrinking resource base. In war and famine in Africa, Mark Duffield shows how internal wars are fought on a terrain of semi-sunsistence economies, with the result that traditional strategies of coping with famine are destroyed. Populations are displaced on a massive scale, and whole ethnic groups can be destroyed. He illustrates also how war accentuates the transformation of family and gender relations which were already underway as a result of enviroeconomic stresses. The report argues that the international provision of welfare and relief is no longer adequate to deal with the consequences of conflict in Africa: the whole system is in urgent need of reform. The aim of reform would be to establish a contractual relation between recipient governments, official donors, and NGOs in terms that would be comprehensive, binding, and based upon a revision of the rules of war. This report was commissioned by Oxfam UK and Ireland from its former representative for the Sudan. It draws on case studies from South and West Sudan, and Mozambique, to illustrate the effects of local and internal conflict on civilian populations.