Climate change 'sparked war'

2008-04-18 14:42

Paris - French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Friday said the war in Darfur had been sparked in part by climate change, and warned it could lead to "dozens" more conflicts.

In a speech at a major conference in Paris, Sarkozy said the conflict in Darfur resulted from "an explosive mixture" in which climate change had affected agriculture, forcing a migratory wave that had then helped to unleash war.

"Climate change is already having a considerable impact on security," Sarkozy said.

"If we keep going down this path, climate change will encourage the immigration of people with nothing towards areas where the population do have something, and the Darfur crisis will be only one crisis among dozens of others."

Sarkozy made the warning to ministers from 16 economies that together account for 80% of the world's emissions of greenhouse gases.

Water scarcity a major factor

The war in Darfur has claimed more than 200 000 lives from fighting, famine and disease and 2.2 million others have been left homeless.

The conflict began when ethnic minority rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated regime and state-backed Arab militia, fighting for resources and power in one of the most remote and deprived places on earth.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon last June said the Darfur conflict "began as an ecological crisis, arising at least in part from climate change".

UN statistics showed that rainfall declined some 40% over the past two decades, as a rise in Indian Ocean temperatures disrupted monsoons, he said.

When Darfur's land was rich, he said, black farmers welcomed Arab herders and shared their water, said Ban. With the drought, though, farmers fenced in their land to prevent overgrazing and, as food and water became scarce, fighting broke out.

Ban identified Somalia, Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso as African countries with "food and water insecurity".

In March, a report on climate change, put to an EU summit in Brussels, said water scarcity had been a major factor on the conflict in Darfur and a source of tension in the Middle East, while flooding in Bangladesh was spurring migration.

- AFP