Energeopolitical Interventions and Civil Wars in Africa: The Cases of Nigeria, Angola and Sudan

This paper presents a theoretical perspective to explain the relationship between energy resources and civil wars in Africa as a battleground for the international energeopolitical competition. It is possible to analyse the mentioned relationship cyclically through three patterns of competition. The first pattern of competition, as exemplified with the case of Biafra, occurred between Britain and France in an effort to maintain their waning influence in Africa following the decolonisation. The second pattern of competition was fought between the USA and the USSR striving to expand their zones of influence in the Cold War era. We illustrated that in the case of Angola. The last scramble for Africa is staged, as seen in Sudan, between the USA and the People's Republic of China, which deepens day by day with the latter's irrepressible rise. The reason why Great Powers are a party to civil wars in resourcerich regions can be understood in the context of a grand strategy aiming at securing their own energy supplies while occluding their present or possible rivals' veins of life.