ABSTRACT

Wars between African states were uncommon in the post-colonial late twentieth century as African governments generally accepted the borders inherited from the colonial powers. Some of the inter-state conflicts that developed from the 1960s to 1980s were expanded and intensified by Cold War superpower involvement. The Soviet Union and the United States sponsored different sides in conflicts between Egypt and Israel, Somalia and Ethiopia, Angola and South Africa and Chad and Libya. These state-versus-state wars also sometimes took place within the context of civil wars. For example, as Angolan state forces clashed with the South African military, they also had to contend with Angolan rebels backed by Pretoria and Washington. Africa also experienced some short border conflicts including the 1977–8 Egyptian–Libyan War, the 1985 Mali-Burkina Faso War and the 1998–2000 Eritrea–Ethiopia War. The 1979 Kagera War started as border clash but resulted in the Tanzanian invasion of Uganda. Post-colonial Africa’s largest inter-state war began at the end of the twentieth century when the Democratic Republic of Congo was invaded by a half dozen neighboring states who fought each other, backed local armed factions and plundered resources.