Abstract
The proliferation of violent conflicts in West Africa in recent times has become a source of major concern not only for African leaders but also for her development partners. The study, examined how non-state actors contribute to the proliferation of violent conflicts in West Africa between 1999 and 2019. Its specific objectives were to: assess the capacity of non-state actors across the selected conflict zones as a driver of conflict proliferation. Others are to evaluate the role of state fragility as an enabling mechanism for non-state actor operations in West Africa and determine the factors that influence the effectiveness of international interventions in countering non-state actor capacity and conflict proliferation. It employed a qualitative-method comparative approach to analyze major conflicts in Côte d’Ivoire Crises (2002-2011), Mali Crises (2012-2019), and Nigeria political crises (19992019), utilizing documentary analysis, quantitative indicators of Armed Conflict Location, Event Data (ACLED), and Fragile States Index (FSI) Database. The study found that non-state actors’ military, financial, territorial, and network capacities are fundamental drivers of conflict proliferation in West Africa. State fragility functions as a critical enabling mechanism that amplifies non-state actor operations and sustains cycles of violence, while international intervention effectiveness diminishes significantly in contexts of high nonstate actor capacity and sever state fragility. The study recommended simultaneous effective regional and international interventions for conflict prevention strategies addressing the non-state actors’ capacity for violence and state capacity for management using variable assessment frameworks.
Keywords: Non-state actors, State fragility, Conflict intensity, International intervention, West Africa.
Author name(s):
Uzor, Paul Robinson
Department of History and
International Studies
University of Uyo
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23139033
Copyright © [2026] The Author(s). Published by the Journal of People and Worldviews (JPW). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Licence, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are properly credited.