Project Abstract

Abstract
The Niger Delta crisis has been a longstanding issue characterized by violence, militancy, and conflict over resources in the region. While much attention has been focused on the male combatants involved in the conflict, the role of Nigerian female combatants in operations within the Niger Delta crisis remains a relatively understudied aspect. This research project aims to address this gap by conducting a detailed case study focusing on the involvement of female combatants in the operations in the Niger Delta crisis. The research will utilize a qualitative research approach, including interviews, focus groups, and document analysis, to gather data on the experiences, motivations, and roles of female combatants in the conflict. By exploring the perspectives of these women, the study seeks to provide a nuanced understanding of their involvement and the impact of their participation on the conflict dynamics in the region. The findings of the study are expected to contribute to the existing literature on conflict, gender, and security by shedding light on the often-overlooked role of female combatants in conflicts such as the Niger Delta crisis. Understanding the motivations and experiences of these women can provide insights into the complex interplay of factors driving their participation in conflict, including economic, social, and political dimensions. Moreover, the research aims to highlight the agency of female combatants in shaping the conflict dynamics and outcomes in the Niger Delta crisis. By giving voice to these women and acknowledging their roles, the study seeks to challenge traditional narratives of conflict that often marginalize or ignore the contributions of female actors. Ultimately, this research project seeks to contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of conflict dynamics in the Niger Delta region and beyond, emphasizing the importance of considering the diverse roles and experiences of all actors involved in conflicts. By recognizing the agency and impact of female combatants, the study aims to promote a more inclusive and gender-sensitive approach to conflict analysis and resolution, with implications for policy and practice in conflict-affected regions.

Project Overview

INTRODUCTION

The incidence of female combatants in Africa is a recurrent decimal. This problem has really pre-occupied not only scholars of strategic persuasion, but also in the violence and peace studies and those in the humanitarian scholarship have also not been left out. This is because of the numerous effects and the problems it posits for both local and international peace especially the psychological and traumatizing multiplier effects it has on the domestic social space. Although, the concept of female combatants is being confronted with serious theoretical and conceptual clarification, what is vivid is that, Africa’s experience presents a case and picture of irregularities and conventionalism ( Aghfer, 2010:23).

Females make up almost several thousands of those recruited for wars. The internecine wars in Africa and the numerous conflicts of different dimensions and colourations on the continent have given rise to the crisis of female combatants. The child- soldier syndrome (Amadu, S and Wale,I, 2003:137-166) in Africa was not exclusive of the great percentage of the females who served in the different categories of the wars. For instance, girls make up of almost half of the 300,000 children involved in wars in Africa (Geoffrey, 2010:11). Research has shown that girls are used extensively in combat in a wide range of international conflicts. In some cases by groups who have had the support of Britain and the United States. Among countries involved are Colombia, Pakistan, and Uganda in Africa, the Philippines and Democratic Republic of Congo, also in Africa. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, there were up to 12, 500 girls in armed groups. In Sri Lanka, 43 per cent of 51,000 of children are

girls. (Richard, 2009:218). The point here is that the problem of female combatant is not peculiar to Africa, though the worst examples are being experienced in Africa.

The percentages of the girls in the areas cited above are just extracts of the total percentage of the female soldiers in wars in Africa. However scholars have looked at this issues form different dimensions. Paradoxically, despite the contributions to warfare by female combatants, they continue to be seen but not heard. Their roles are usually in the area of logistics and administration at the point of recruitment but they find themselves in real combat when the need arise.

The Niger Delta crisis have been explained from different dimensions ( Samuel , I: 2009), Suberu, L: 2010), Akanni, J: 2011), Eghosa, L:2012} the crisis of female combatant remains highly inexhaustive. Celestine, B, (2010) and Angela, F(2011) have both looked at the issues of girls used as spies by the Niger Delta militants but the issue of the females as combatants in the Niger Delta being used in all the ramifications of war and the subsequent effects of this on post violence Niger Delta is largely neglected. In fact, the amnesty and rehabilitation programmes of President Yar’adua even failed to address the total realities of the female combatants. Vividly capturing this position was Bubaraji, J (2011:45) who was of the opinion that the programmes of rehabilitation of President Yar’adua mentioned nothing about the females who took part in the crisis but only the male combatants are adequately catered for in the programme.

This position partly informs the dimensions of this work and seeks to establish that female combatants were actively involved in the Niger Delta crisis and that their roles in the Niger Delta crisis were of combat nature alongside their male counterparts. There is also the need to establish the fact that they were not rehabilitated in the post crisis amnesty programme and

this neglect has led to negative effects especially on the female combatants and by extension on the society.

It should be stressed that the idea of female combatants in this context is understood from the perspective of female mercenaries either forced or engaged to fight wars on behalf of a group, interest or for other reasons peculiar or distant from direct concern of the mercenaries but which the female mercenaries are directly or indirectly committed to. The regular female combatants in the National armies are not part of this category. Although, the idea of female combatants is not alien to the traditional African setting but the difference is the degree and dimensions of the trans-national colouration it has assumed. In the pre-colonial African setting especially in the Yorubaland, in Nigeria, male and female mercenaries are engaged to fight on behalf of empires and kingdoms. Often times, their support are enlisted when necessary because of their identified prowess and abilities not necessarily for financial benefits but for some other social and political reasons (Ayinla, 2004:118) the required recognition and pride of place that the female combatants are supposed to enjoy is always lacking despite their prowess.

The contemporary situation especially in the Niger Delta was largely directed towards pecuniary benefits and primordial sentiments (Eghosa, 2007:12) but more essentially by seeming patriotic commitment to the emancipation of the Niger Delta environment. This work is essentially located partly within the vortex of the contemporary realities and the conditions of the engagements of the female combatants in the Niger Delta. The nature of the contemporary problems of violence and the degree of the engagement of these combatants also partly underscore the availability of the female recruits into electoral crimes and mayhem in the Niger Delta. Convincingly, Jinadu Adele(2009) got this situation more clearly when he posited that the rate at which women are being used in the Niger Delta environment for

stealing of votes, assassination and for all forms of crimes explains the reality of the need to properly engage and rehabilitate these women. Their responses to crimes and modus operandi do not only send jitters but also tells a deep story of a trained and fearless group that could be used for violence and war any day.

This position informs the relative significance of the women combatants in the Niger Delta conflicts and why it is worth this intellectual investigation. By focusing on the roles of the female combatants in the Niger Delta and the role of the domestic factor that has thrown up this class; it underscores a bottom-up rather than the realist top-down analysis of national security formulae. This is because of the nature of the recruitment of these combatants, the nature and period of training and the responsibilities of being a combatant.