The Tormented triangle: The regionalisation of conflict in Sudan, Chad and the Central African Republic

In 2005, increased violence in Chad and the Central Africa Republic (CAR) attracted media attention that lead to human rights advocates and some analysts describing these conflicts as a simple "spill-over" from the war in Darfur or the "Darfurization" of the region. Today, this "Darfurization" thesis has been deconstructed and discredited, as a number of recent studies have elucidated the intrinsic roots of the conflicts in Chad and CAR. This paper argues that the conflicts in Darfur, eastern Chad, and north-eastern CAR have become so interwoven that they are scarcely separable from one another and actually form one regional conflict system rather than three distinct conflicts. The aim of this paper is to make sense of regionalised conflict in north-central Africa, in particular the structural factors that caused it and the dynamics sustaining it. The first section provides a descriptive account of how the Tormented Triangle took shape through a series of key events that led to the regionalisation of conflict in north-central Africa, whereas the following section delves deeper by highlighting the different structural elements pertaining to why the Tormented Triangle emerged. In section IV we explore how some scholars have understood the emergence of regional conflict formations and whether such concepts are helpful for the understanding of the Tormented Triangle. The conclusion outlines a number of policy implications for conflict management and resolution in the context of regionalized conflicts in north-central Africa.