Abyei Offers Lessons for the Region on Climate-Related Security Risks

Sep 23, 2021 | Kheira Tarif, Emilie Broek, and Katongo Seyuba
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The conflict in Abyei—a disputed border region of farmland, desert and oil fields—has its origins in a long-running disagreement between two pastoralist groups, the local Ngok Dinka and Misseriyya Arab seasonal migrants. Through out the 10-year deployment of UNISFA in Abyei, climate change has undermined efforts to provide human security.

The case of Abyei offers three important lessons for UNISFA, as well as for other peacekeeping missions and actors in the region. SIPRI’s research on climate-related security risks in East and West Africa and in South and South East Asia has highlighted four ‘pathways’ through which climate change can interact with existing political and socioeconomic conditions to affect peace and security: livelihoods, migration and mobility, armed group tactics, and elite exploitation.