Explaining Rebel Targeting of Refugee Camps

• In Event: Civil War Dynamics

Abstract

Forced migration researchers often assume that settling refugees in camps can make them more vulnerable to attacks by rebel groups, citing cases like Uganda in which rebels have targeted refugee camp sites. However, little work to date has examined rebel targeting of refugee camps in a systematic way, or the factors that make rebel violence in these locations more or less likely. Previous research in the area of refugee studies posits that a lack of material resources leads rebels to target camps in an effort to capture incoming humanitarian relief supplies (Jacobsen 1999; Johnson 2011), though this has not been tested empirically. On the other hand, research on conflict processes shows that rebels who lack resource wealth are more dependent on local populations for support and thus are less likely to abuse civilians (Weinstein 2007; Whitaker, Walsh, Conrad 2019), but this logic has not been extended to refugees. Seeking to bring together these bodies of literature, this paper asks: under what conditions are rebel groups more likely to attack refugee camp sites? It utilizes new data on refugee camps and rebel funding strategies to examine how perpetrator characteristics, including funding sources and relative strength, as well as camp “access” indicators, like proximity to the capital and state capacity, influence the likelihood of rebel violence in refugee camp locations. Its findings have implications for the development of effective strategies for protecting refugees from the abuses of predatory rebels.

Authors

• Kerstin Fisk, Loyola Marymount University

• Beth Elise Whitaker, University of North Carolina, Charlotte