Ethnicity can be taken to mean a social creation that generally separates people into diverse social groupings based on definite distinctiveness like a common language, culture and traditions, history, and geography, among others. It is arguably true to state that ethnic conflicts experienced today especially in most African countries are deep-rooted and bring mammoth challenges to resolve them amicably. In Africa, countries like Rwanda, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and Chad are vivid examples of ethnic conflict-torn regions. Ethnic conflicts are usually caused by efforts to obtain or secure leadership and wealth.
Specifically, Chad has had ethnic conflicts that date back to1965 between the Arabs in the north, and the Christians in the south referred to as the blacks fighting for political power. The most recent ethnic conflict was in 2008 where president Idriss Déby was being accused of favoring his tribe. Chad has about 200 ethnic groups, and each of the groups aims at producing top leaders in the government. This has brought about increased animosity among them. Ethnic conflicts mainly depend on the level of government effectiveness, transparency, as well as accountability when dealing with the demands of diversity.
Ethnic conflict resolution and management cannot be overemphasized. There are numerous ways of managing and resolving ethnic conflicts. To begin with, power-sharing deals are appropriate in preventing ethnic dominance in government. Ethnic conflicts can also be solved by establishing a Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC). This worked very well in Kenya after the 2007 post-election ethnic violence that marred the country. Other ways would include political negotiation between interested groups, establishing effective affirmative actions for the disadvantaged and marginalized groups as well as establishing reforms such as the ones used in Chad in 2007.