M.A., Faculty of Humanties, University of the Witwarersrand, 2011 / The preponderance of intrastate violent conflicts in natural resource rich states has been attributed to a number of causal mechanisms. Theorists of conflicts thus tend to explain these conflicts using different approaches, notably path dependency and rational choice. These approaches examine issues such as ethnicity and political marginalization, weak but repressive state capacity, strategic dilemmas, foreign instigators of conflict, and the very pervasive theory of the resource curse. Natural resources usually lie at the heart of many of these conflicts and the resource curse theory has helped explain the effects of states’ dependence on the primary resource sector. This resource curse is therefore corroborated by the rational choice approach which insists that economic incentives explain the upsurge in rebellious activities within natural resource rich but poor and dependent states, especially in Africa. This research interrogates the rational choice approach of Collier and Hoeffler against the backdrop of issues in the Niger Delta conflict. It argues that the greed versus grievance theory remains inadequate in the light of the historical and sociological circumstances underlying political struggles in the region. The research report concludes that an integrated but eclectic approach be applied in the study of this crisis.

Region 5 is one of the most impoverished and insecure regions of Ethiopia. For decades, the region has suffered from a multitude of armed conflicts involving state and non-state actors. Region 5 is also one of the most underserved states of Ethiopia with some of the lowest levels of human development indicators nationwide. Although the adversities of poverty and conflict are widely acknowledged in their own respect, there has been little or no inquest into why poverty and conflict have prevailed under the same space for decades. Poverty and conflict have often been seen as separate phenomena that are dealt with using different sets of theories and practices in the real world. Nonetheless, a closer look at poverty and conflict in Region 5 reveals that both are strongly connected to each other. The poverty-conflict trap has been an on-going cycle in the region for the last five decades. The main intent of this research paper is analyzing the two-way relationship between poverty and conflict in Region 5. By studying this relationship, this analysis seeks to contribute to a new framework that brings peacebuilding and development closer.