Climate conflicts: The overlooked peacebuilding crisis in Africa’s environmental wars

BY AKINTAYO OBAFEMI

Across Africa, climate change is no longer a distant threat it is a present reality which includes rising temperatures, erratic rainfall, prolonged droughts, and resource depletion.

These factors are already reshaping lives and livelihoods. But beyond its environmental toll, climate change is becoming a major driver of conflict.

From Nigeria’s middle belt to the Lake Chad Basin, climate-related factors are fuelling intercommunal violence, forced migration, and insecurity. Yet, despite this growing crisis, climate conflict remains largely absent from peacebuilding strategies.

To secure Africa’s future, policymakers must recognize and address the deep and growing intersection between environmental change and violent conflict.

To unravel the mysteries of the highlighted challenges, emphasis must be on some key points that may likely shape the standpoint of defining peace and climate crisis.

The key points to be discussed include, where environment meets insecurity.

The Sahel region offers a grim picture of climate conflict in real time. Here, desertification has pushed pastoralist communities further south into farming regions, intensifying competition over land and water. In Nigeria, the decades-long farmer-herder conflict exacerbated by climate stress has killed thousands and displaced millions.

In the Lake Chad Basin, shrinking water levels have disrupted agriculture and fishing, contributing to economic desperation that extremist groups like Boko Haram exploit for recruitment. Similar patterns are emerging in East Africa, where pastoralist clashes in Kenya and Ethiopia are increasingly linked to drought induced scarcity.

As climate shocks multiply, so too will tensions over natural resources. In fragile states, where governance is weak and institutions are under-resourced, environmental stress often translates directly into violence.

Why climate is still side-lined in peacebuilding despite clear links between environmental degradation and conflict?

Most peacebuilding efforts in Africa still focus primarily on ethnic, religious, or political grievances. These are important factors, but they cannot be fully understood in isolation from ecological realities. Too often, peacebuilding practitioners view climate issues as the domain of environmentalists or development agencies, not of security experts or mediators.

This siloed approach limits impact. Without addressing the underlying resource pressures driving conflict, peace agreements risk being short-lived. Climate stress may reignite hostilities, undermine reconstruction efforts, or fuel new cycles of violence. Integrating climate considerations into peacebuilding is not optional ,it is essential.

Toward xlimate-sensitive peacebuilding
First, it must begin with integrated risk assessments that factor in environmental stressors alongside political and social tensions. Early warning systems should include climate indicators such as rainfall patterns, crop failures, and water access.

Second, peace processes must include environmental actors and traditional ecological knowledge holders. In many African societies, indigenous practices of land stewardship, conflict mediation, and water-sharing have long ensured coexistence.

Reinvigorating these systems can strengthen social cohesion and ecological resilience.
Third, post-conflict recovery must be green. This means investing in reforestation, sustainable agriculture, and water management as part of peace dividends.

Climate adaptation efforts must target marginalised groups such as women, youth, and displaced populations who are both disproportionately affected and critical to long-term recovery.

Roles of national and regional institutions

Governments have a central role to play. National climate adaptation plans should be linked to conflict prevention strategies.

Ministries of environment, agriculture, and security must collaborate rather than operate in isolation. At the regional level, bodies like ECOWAS and the African Union should develop joint frameworks on climate security, build technical capacity, and coordinate transboundary natural resource management.

Equally important is the role of civil society. Local peacebuilders, community-based organizations, and youth groups are already innovating solutions from community water projects in northern Nigeria to agroecological cooperatives in Kenya. These efforts must be scaled up, funded, and integrated into national development plans.
Global Implications and Responsibilities

Africa’s climate conflicts also demand international attention. While African countries contribute the least to global emissions, they bear some of the highest burdens.

International donors and multilateral institutions must prioritize climate security in their development assistance and peacebuilding programming.

Climate finance must be accessible and conflict sensitive. Investments in adaptation and mitigation should include peace dividends, support for local conflict resolution, and mechanisms to prevent environmental grievances from escalating.

Global frameworks, such as the UN’s Climate Security Mechanism, must be strengthened and better linked to African-led initiatives.

In conclusion, the future depends on probable solutions to climate conflict. Climate conflict is not a problem for tomorrow it is a crisis of today.

In Africa, where ecological stress intersects with political fragility, the costs of inaction are too high to ignore. It is time to break down the walls between environmental and peacebuilding sectors and create integrated solutions that reflect the complex realities on the ground.

Africa’s future depends on its ability to turn climate vulnerability into resilience. That means not just planting trees but planting peace. Not just managing natural resources but managing relationships. Only by recognising the climate-conflict nexus can we build a more just, peaceful, and sustainable continent.