Abstract

This study aimed at describing “The Effects Of Armed Conflict On Basic Social Services For Women And Children In Kumba” and in realizing this, five objectives were gotten to attain the results.

It was a cross sectional study involving 50 people that is women and children aged 15-60years. The techniques and instruments used for data collection were questionnaires and the methods used for data analysis were tables and charts.

The analysis was based on the importance of basic social services for women and children, the uses of basic social services for women and children, the effects of the conflict on women and children and the coping strategies adopted by women and children, it also looked at the role of government in rehabilitating women and children and the challenges faced by the government in rehabilitating women and children.

Findings from this study show that the conflict has adversely affected the development of Kumba I in several ways. Agricultural production has drastically reduced as a result of insecurity, loss of lives and assets, thereby causing people to migrate.

The destruction of both physical and economic infrastructures by warring parties is a major concern and has serious implications on the civil population.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

Taydas and Peksen (2012) state that citizen dissatisfaction with existing political, economic and social conditions is common across nations. This does not in all instances lead to major conflicts. For the extreme case this discontent might escalate to transform itself to major arm conflicts.

Conflict is a struggle or contest between people with opposite need, ideas, beliefs, value, or goals. Defined in broadest terms, conflict denotes the incompatibility of subject position (Diez et al, 2006: 565).

It is also said to exist when two or more groups engage in a struggle over values and claims to status, power and resources in which the aims of the opponent are to neutralize, insure or eliminate rivals (Jeong, 2000).

Armed conflict is contested incompatibility that concerns government, and or territory where the use of armed force between two parties, of which at least one is the government of the state (Wallensteen 1988; Heldt 1993). Armed conflicts could either be national that is within the country or international.

It could take the form of a secessionist movement, generally spearheaded by a group of people, more often than not a minority within a community who take up arms to fight for the establishment of either an autonomous entity with an entirely new and independent state of their own. A second and larger category of armed.

Conflict within states often involves a group of people who are armed and ready to fight for the goal of seizing government power. Sometimes conflicts are matters of organized crime as opposed to politics.

Money is the motivator for these groups unlike member of secessionist movements, such groups are generally prepared to continue to live in the same territory with other groups, regardless of the outcome of the conflict (Wallensteen and Sollenberg,1998).

According to Taydas and Peksen (2012), factors that create grievances and a sense of injustice, including relative deprivation, collective disadvantages, and inequality provide groups with a motivation to use violent means against the state, and hence their actions have a lot of consequences on the state and the lives of people leaving within the area of the conflict.

Many complex factors lead to armed conflicts within states. Some conditions that increase the probability of war include the inability of governments to provide basic good governance and protection for their own populations.

In some counties in the sub-Saharan region, struggles for control over key natural resources, coupled with wider political ambitions have increased the level of intensity of armed conflicts as in the case of Angola.

Cameroon, a country previously known for its stability, faced violence, and serious human rights abuses in 2018.

The country endured abusive military operations against a secessionist insurgency in the North from Islamic militant groups and a worsening humanitarian crisis in the two Anglophone regions (North West and South West) of the country (World report, 2019),

In the Anglophone North and Southwest regions, the absence of a genuine political process to address decades; old grievance against the Biya government contributed to the radicalization of the discourse and tactics of Anglophone activists. Since mid, 2017, Anglophone separatists have attacked government institutions and threatened, kidnapped, and killed civilians perceived to side with the government (World report, 2019).

Internal conflicts are particularly devastating since they affect both the supply of and demand for social services and health infrastructure.

Violence increases the demand for many types of services. At the same time countries are less able to provide these, for two reasons; first, during the conflict, regimes divert resources from health and social services to military expenditure. Secondly, fighting itself destroy critical infrastructures such as hospitals, educational facilities, health centers, and the transportation network that brings people to this location. Millions of women and children suffer from starvation and disease as a result of war.

The high incidence of malnutrition, disease, and deaths among young children is attributed to war tactics of disrupting the production and distribution of food supplies. Conflict-affected settings present a wide variety of challenges for health actors and women.

These range from constraints on the health system itself to challenges in delivering and accessing health services. Such challenges make the work of health actors difficult and at times dangerous. During armed conflict, the state is generally unable or unwilling to provide adequate health services to its population.

As a result, the international community often steps in to fill the gap Conflict adversely affects the health infrastructure, which maybe either intentionally or unintentionally damaged, destroyed, or looted by warring parties. Those health facilities that are not entirely destroyed may end up shutting down or reducing their services (Fox et al., 2018).

Conflict also damages crucial health-supporting infrastructure such as food and water safety and supply, sanitation, electric power, transportation, and communication.

In the Central African Republic, the conflict has disrupted the country’s already weak logistics and transport capacity, making it much more challenging to deliver medicine to rural areas (Ssonko et al., 2017).

Damaged agricultural infrastructure can lead to malnutrition and famine. The lack of essential services more generally increases a populations vulnerability to disease outbreak.

Yemen also suffered from serious electricity shortages, which meant that lab services could not continue, the cold chain for vaccines was unable to function and no fans were available for seriously ill patients in the scorching heat (Yemen, 2017)

As a result of conflict, girls face particular difficulties. They may be forced into early marriages as a coping strategy in economically desperate households. Girls enrollment in schools often drops in times of war. When forced to become heads of households, girls are particularly marginalized, suffer social stigma and at are an increased risk of abuse and sexual violence (Security Council Report, 2002)

Armed conflict exacerbates inequalities between women and men and discrimination against women and men. If women do not participate in decision making, they are unlikely to become involved in decisions about the conflict or the peace process.

Women’s daily tasks as providers and care givers become increasingly difficult and dangerous, especially as public services and household goods become less and less available.

Armed conflict forces women to take on more responsibilities for family security and livelihoods. But lack of land and property rights constrains their efforts. Women and girls take on new or nontraditional occupations (Security Council Report, 2002)

Women and girls are not only victims in armed conflict: they are also active agents. They may choose to participate in conflict or to provide non-military support; or they may be manipulated or forced into various roles.

Women and girls may be forced into sexual slavery or coerced to work as domestic servants for fighting groups. Many women organize for conflict resolution, peacemaking and disarmament.

They are involved in rebuilding the social, cultural, economic and political fabric of their societies. But even where women have been involved in informal peace processes, they are normally pushed into the background when formal peace negotiations begin (Security Council Report, 2002)

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Conflict very rarely have positive effects on any economy whether the wining country or countries bordering conflicting countries. According to shank (2016) negative unintended consequences occur either concurrently with the clash or develop as residual effects afterwards and this leads to impeding the economy in the long term.

Often every day activity of a community or country are disrupted and property are damaged with people becoming displaced, many cannot continue to work or keep their businesses open causing damage to the economies of the country (The Institution of Economies and Peace, 2012).

For the most parts, in the event of armed conflicts, arms and provisions for defense forces are often a significant amount of government spending. Some government direct money to fund war efforts leaving other institutions with little or no availability budget.

There is always mass destruction of cities with important indirect consequences on basic social services which are often over looked and appreciated and as such women, girls, children are often the once hit by the destruction or absence of such facilities.

Despite the fact that women cannot be seen as a homogeneous group during armed conflict, because women are not passive and not necessarily victims as is the case around the world.

Some women have become members of the regular armed forces, or their support services. But for the majority of cases, during periods of armed conflict women and girls face a lot of security issues, gender based violence such as rape, limited or no access to antenatal care and postnatal care. In such cases, there are reports of interruption in regular antennal care and experience of more pregnancy related complications (Kebakian-khashodan)

Armed conflict continues to destroy not just school infrastructures, but also the hopes and ambitions of a whole generation of children. Either schools are destroyed or damaged, or it may lead to death and displacement of teachers and students or conflict threatens children’s security while travelling, to schools and attending classes.

For the most parts, girls maybe kept from school by their parents for the fear of sexual violence against female students (UNESCO, 2013). Severe insecurity on movement has prevented women and children from accessing farms and markets, maybe also struggle to access clean water for sanitation and hygiene.

Wagner et al, (2019) supports that women, girls and child are mostly those who die during periods of conflict, children younger than 15years loose parents. According to their report, conflict related deaths; there is increase probability of female mortality by 202% and increase likelihood of or plan hood by 42%

The destruction or limited access to social services such as medical facilities have led to high mortality rate to women and children who mostly are victims of armed conflicts as they cannot access these facilities.

As a result, with this devastating effects of conflict, women have adopted various stages such as fleeing from areas of conflict to avoid massacre perpetuated by paramilitary groups, gorilla occupant, violent conflicts between combatants and the threat of having their children forcedly recruited, this nevertheless has pushed them into more precarious situations as many have been forced into prostitutions in major towns and cities, demeaning domestic labor, slave workers all in a bit to survive.

Government and NGOs (national and international) have also resolved to providing medical/ relief facilities in warring zones. Though majority of these supplies have ended up in the pockets of officials coordinating such projects. Sometimes these facilities are diverted to family members of government officials or leaders.

It is a result of this that this study examines the effect of arm conflict on basic social services such as education, security and health facility in the town of Kumba, of the south west region of Cameroon

1.3 Objectives of the study

1.3.1 General Objectives

The main objective of this study is to examine the effects of armed conflict on the basic social services for women and children

1.3.2 Specific objectives       

The specific objectives of this study are to:

1. Examine the importance of basic social services for women and children
2. Describe the uses of basic social services for women and children
3. Describe the effects of these conflicts on women, children and examine the coping strategies adopted by women and children
4. Find out the role of government in rehabilitating women and children
5. Identify the challenges faced by the government in rehabilitating women and children

Read Also: The Effects Of Violence Against Women In Likomba Tiko, South West Region, Cameroon