From Breadbasket to Battleground: Climate Change, Conflict, and Agricultural Collapse in Anglophone Cameroon, 2017–2025

Abstract

The protracted Anglophone Crisis in Cameroon’s Northwest and Southwest regions has coincided with increasing climate variability, raising critical questions about their combined impact on rural livelihoods. This article explores how the interaction between climate change and armed conflict has contributed to agricultural collapse between 2017 and 2025. Drawing on a qualitative methodology that integrates oral interviews, secondary data analysis, climate trend reports, and conflict assessments, the study applies insights from Political Ecology to examine the climate conflict nexus. The findings reveal that erratic rainfall, land degradation, and shortened growing seasons, when combined with insecurity, displacement, and institutional breakdown, have led to widespread farm abandonment, disruption of food systems, and deepening rural vulnerability. The study concludes that the convergence of environmental stress and governance failure has produced a self-reinforcing climate conflict trap, undermining both resilience and recovery. It recommends the adoption of conflict-sensitive climate governance strategies, including the restoration of local institutions, promotion of climate smart agriculture, and strengthened support from national and international actors to rebuild sustainable livelihoods in affected regions.