Fidel Abowei

Oil and Violence: a Comparative Analysis of the Role of Oil in Fueling the Niger Delta and South Sudan Conflicts Fidel Abowei

The high rate of resource conflicts in the World and Africa in particular called for an analysis of the role of oil in two oil rich states?Nigeria and Sudan?that have been engulfed in years of civil conflicts. While several studies have been carried out on the role of oil in the Niger Delta and South Sudan, this book compares the role of oil in both regions so as to identify the similarities and differences in terms of how oil affected both conflicts. While using the political ecology paradigm as a framework of analysis, this study finds that oil played a significant role in the Niger Delta and South Sudan conflicts but its impact differ due to different country-specific conditions. The study concludes that while oil affected the conflict in both regions, it is not the presence of oil that led to the conflicts rather it is the policies of distribution of the Nigerian and Sudanese governments that led to violence.