Differential Vulnerability to Conflict in Ethiopia

Often scholars hold the view that pastoral mode of subsistence by its nature has rooms for vulnerability to conflict;whereas sedentary farmers as the farthest thing from conflict. This study set out to probe the vulnerability or immunity of the above modes of subsistence to conflict among the Guji of Ethiopia.It has been found out that conflict has been and still is observed in pastoralist as well as farming Guji communities. The finding of the study proves that conflict cuts across modes of subsistence with varying degrees of intensity which are inversely related to the frequency of conflict. The other major finding, the size of property loss is inversely related to the capacity for mobility. In general, both farming and pastoralist Guji have been and still are vulnerable to conflict with other communities, conflicts that run the gamut from latent and manifest all the way to direct and bloody violence; with varying degrees; hence the differential vulnerability to conflict of the two Guji communities. The analysis should help shed some light on the two modes of subsistence vis a vis conflict, and especially useful to professionals & practitioners in Peace and Security Studies.