Sub-Saharan Africa

Regular destruction of power lines from Cahora Bassa Dam during fight for independence in the region. Dam targeted by RENAMO (the Mozambican National Resistance).

Attacks on Inga Dam during efforts to topple President Kabila. Disruption of electricity supplies from Inga Dam and water supplies to Kinshasa, Congo.

Poor delivery of water and sanitation services in Phumelela Township leads to several months of protests. No one is killed during the protests, but a few people are seriously injured, and municipal property is damaged.

In October 1993, violence erupts in the Narok district of Kenya’s Rift Valley province. Maasai warriors attack immigrant Kikuyu settlers and massacre at least 17 of them, after Kikuyi settlers allegedly mutilated Maasai cattle. 16 more Kikuyus are killed in other parts of Narok and the rest of the Kikuyu population is forced out of the area and into refugee camps. Environmental concerns played a central role: a few months previously, the Narok County Council had declared Enosupukia, the site…

A deadly flight between farmers and pastoralists over a watering point near the Kenyan-Ethiopian border leaves eleven people dead, two injured, and four missing.

President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia calls on British government to send troops to Kariba Dam to protect it from possible saboteurs from Rhodesian government.

At least 250 people killed and many more injured in clashes over water wells and pastoral lands. Villagers call it the “War of the Well” and describe “well warlords, well widows, and well warriors.” A three-year drought has led to extensive violence over limited water resources, worsened by the lack of effective government and central planning.

At least 12 people die and over 20 are wounded in clashes over competition for water and pasture in the Somali border region.

Ethiopian Somalis attack a Borana community in the Oromia region over ownership of a new borehole being drilled on the disputed border between them. Three people from the Oromia village of Kafa are killed and seven injured, and the entire community driven from their homes. The drilling rig is destroyed, as well.

Police are sent to the northwestern part of Kenya to control a major violent dispute between Kikuyu and Maasai groups over water. More than 20 people are killed in fighting in January. By July, the death toll exceeds 90, principally in the rural center of Turbi. The tensions arise over grazing and water. Maasai herdsmen accuse a local Kikuyu politician of diverting a river to irrigate his farm, depriving downstream livestock. Fighting displaces more than 2000 villagers and reflects tensions…