It is obvious that the damage of conflict is going up. There continue to be common misperceptions as to what are the fundamental causes of the conflicts, which have set back national development in so many African countries. Various analysts in political science, anthropology and other sciences have looked at the causes of all our conflict, so perhaps it is only fair that we economists are having our turn, aided by regression analysis and other tools of our trade. Each one of these hypotheses has been subjected to rigorous econometric testing where appropriate proxy variables are used for the occurrence of war and for the implied explanatory variables. First, conflict is inextricably related to poverty, particularly the lack of human capital, which influences the probability of a civil war.
Poverty means that young men have no stake in staying where they are.
Joining a rebel army becomes a viable employment opportunity where job markets do n ot incorporate youth. Second, conflict is related to the inequitable sharing of valuable natural resources. This failure has led to a number of conflicts and exacerbated many others. And, whenever territories rich in natural resources are captured by marauding militias, these resources are most often looted, providing the private funding to continue conflict. Third, conflicts are more likely to break out where there are dysfunctional governments - characterized by weak, undemocratic economic and political institutions.