Abstract:
The relationship between climate change, migration and conflict is complex and interlinked and this forms the crux of this work as it relates to the West African Sahel. The West African Sahel which includes the Northern fringes of Nigeria is a region known for its fragile ecosystem resulting from an established history of climatic vagaries and variability. This makes the region more prone and vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. The paper noted that the West African Sahel has shown various changes especially in terms of rainfall, of which inter-annual variability is very high. It has witnessed increase in temperature and increased dry spells resulting in reduced water availability and increased land degradation. The consequence is agricultural land resource dearth. This has triggered off migrations by the various occupational groups to areas of greener pastures giving rise to competition and conflict over the available agricultural land resources especially among the sedentary cultivators and between them and the nomadic herdsmen. Among the measures to curb such conflicts, it is opined that adaptation policies and strategies should gear towards reducing livelihood vulnerability, promoting alternatives, improving the quality and quantity of natural resources and decreasing resources competition which will all culminate in reducing forced migratory pressures and minimizing the threat to conflicts. |
