Water is more precious than gold in parts of Africa, and at the heart of more conflict.
Paul Eavis looks at work to ensure European Union policy in the strife-torn Horn helps promote peaceful water use and demilitarisation. Half the world's poorest countries are enduring or have just emerged from serious conflicts. Fundamental to this is more coherent engagement from the EU - policies conceived in isolation often undermine each other and can themselves contribute to social strife and instability. The links between conflict and poverty are graphically illustrated in the region. Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea are currently making the news and Djibouti, Uganda, Kenya and Somalia are all suffering from recent or on-going violent conflict.