Stakeholders Say Climate Change Major Factor In Cases Of Insecurity

Stakeholders from the peace and conflict sector have cited cases of climate change as the major reasons for insecurity, which have posed a major threat to Nigeria's security, resulting in clashes between farmers/herders and migration.

The stakeholders made this known at a two-day conference organised by Prosperity and Peace Pathways Project with the theme 'International Dialogue Forum on the Prosperity and Peace Nexus in the Context of Increasing Climate, Conflict and Food Insecurity' on Thursday in Abuja.

The Director General, Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, Bakut Tswah Bakut, lamented that the change in climate has increased the severity of natural catastrophes therefore, supply of natural resources is threatened by desertification, drought, floods, and sea level rise. 

According to him, climate change fuels long standing rivalries and violence by drying up the sources of subsistence for populations who depend primarily on natural resources because of its warmer and more vulnerable climate as well as its rapid population growth. "As a result of environmental degradation, causing loss, with more frequent droughts, desertification, and a shorter rainy season, climate change has further deteriorated the land decision and water supplies.
"It is obvious from the complexity that the contribution of climate change on violence can only be understood in the context of product process. "The region is experiencing a developing pattern of from the north to south and rural urban migration because of natural circumstances, deep water crisis is a constraining element for development..."
"While we are touching on the cause for immediate action to mitigate climate change and its effects on resilience, and adaptive capacity to climate related hazards and natural disasters in all countries, we must take into cognisance integration of climate change measures, international policies, strategic strategies, planning and promoting mechanisms of raising capacity for effective climate change."