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Ethnic Cleansing or Resource Struggle in Darfur? An empirical analysis

Author

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  • Olsson, Ola

    (Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University)

  • Siba, Eyerusalem

    (Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University)

Abstract

The con‡ict in Darfur has been described both as an ethnic cleansing campaign, carried out by the Sudanese government and its allied militias, and as a local struggle over dwindling natural resources between African farmers and Arab herders. In this paper, we construct a theoretical framework for understanding the choice between ethnic cleansing and resource capture and use a previously unexploited data set on 530 villages in Southwestern Darfur to analyze the determinants of attacks in the region. Our results clearly indicate that Janjaweed attacks have been targeted at villages dominated by the major rebel tribes, resulting in a massive displacement of those populations. Resource variables, capturing access to water and land quality, also have some explanatory power but are not consistently significant. These patterns suggest that attacks in the area had ethnic cleansing as a primary objective.

Suggested Citation

  • Olsson, Ola & Siba, Eyerusalem, 2009. "Ethnic Cleansing or Resource Struggle in Darfur? An empirical analysis," Working Papers in Economics 417, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:gunwpe:0417
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Thoenig, Mathias & Eberle, Ulrich J. & Rohner, Dominic, 2020. "Heat and Hate: Climate Security and Farmer-Herder Conflicts in Africa," CEPR Discussion Papers 15542, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    3. Rademakers, Robbert & van Hoorn, André, 2021. "Ethnic switching: Longitudinal evidence on prevalence, correlates, and implications for measuring ethnic segregation," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    4. Ashton Wiens & Henry B. Lovejoy & Zachary Mullen & Eric A. Vance, 2022. "A modelling strategy to estimate conditional probabilities of African origins: The collapse of the Oyo Empire and the transatlantic slave trade, 1817–1836," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 185(3), pages 1247-1270, July.
    5. Ola Olsson, 2016. "Climate Change and Market Collapse: A Model Applied to Darfur," Games, MDPI, vol. 7(1), pages 1-27, March.
    6. Olsson, Ola & Siba, Eyerusalem, 2013. "Ethnic cleansing or resource struggle in Darfur? An empirical analysis," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 299-312.
    7. Ola Olsson, 0. "After Janjaweed? Socioeconomic Impacts of the Conflict in Darfur," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 24(3), pages 386-411.
    8. Hufschmidt, Patrick & Ume, Chukwuma Otum, 2023. "Conflicts and political intervention: Evidence from the anti-open grazing laws in Nigeria," Ruhr Economic Papers 1009, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    9. Olsson, Ola & Valsecchi, Michele, 2010. "Quantifying Ethnic Cleansing: An Application to Darfur," Working Papers in Economics 479, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    10. Nils Hägerdal, 2019. "Ethnic Cleansing and the Politics of Restraint: Violence and Coexistence in the Lebanese Civil War," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 63(1), pages 59-84, January.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Ethnic cleansing; resource struggle; Darfur;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O41 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - One, Two, and Multisector Growth Models
    • P16 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Capitalist Institutions; Welfare State

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