ABSTRACT

This chapter discusses on existing pre and post-conflict census data, to trace demographic changes that may be related to conflict in two post-conflict African countries, Mozambique and Rwanda, selected on the bases of the availability of data. It focuses on how age and sex structure, fertility, and under-five mortality changed during the conflict period in comparison to pre and post-conflict periods. Conflict and civil war are part of African history. First there was the resistance to colonization and the armed struggles that led to the independence of many African countries in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Second, after gaining independence, many African countries have been involved in civil wars, mainly rooted in ideological and political contradictions and ethnoregional frictions. Finally, the fertility may either increase or decline as a result of conflict, the effects of the two trends may cancel each other out and result in an under-estimation of the impact of conflict on the demographic outcome.