TUHO: Is the resulting violence due to climate change, or is it due to poverty, tribal tensions, or failing political institutions? This is an irrelevant question based on false premises. It is all of these. That's why a landmark study last year by a group of African scholars called the string of conflicts across the Sahel a form of "eco violence", involving environmental, social, and political failures.
According to the Institute for Economics and Peace, the Sahel is one of three ecological hotspots "particularly susceptible to collapse." A second hotspot is in the southern African belt from Angola to Madagascar.
That's why I believe it's right to call what has happened in Niger a "climate coup." From the Sahara, Darfur, and across Africa, climate change is trapping African communities into devastating feedback loops of violence, corruption, and displacement, making Niger's "climate coup" a sign of things to come