War and soaring temperatures leave many rural communities in South Sudan with little or no local water sources. Women and children are subjected to violent attacks, rape, and murder when traveling to regional sources to collect water. Leaders report conflicts sparked by water shortages occurring between the many of the 60 different ethnic groups across the country.
Al Shabaab, a group fighting to create an Islamic state in Somalia, diverts water from the Jubba River, causing a flood that forced Somali, Kenyan, and U.S. military forces to move to higher ground where they were later ambushed. One soldier from the U.S. was killed in the ambush.
Local authorities cite water shortages as a growing influence on the number child kidnappings in the Boma region of South Sudan. When there is a water shortage, shepherding communities spend more time on the move seeking water for their livestock, but, as a side business, they will also abduct children who can then be resold for profit.
More than 130 people are killed in the conflict between hunter and herder communities in Mali. In this instance, Dogon hunters are accused of attacking Fulani herders.
A series of massacres in central Mali, fueled by conflict over land and water resources, causes 50,000 people to flee their homes.
Violence breaks out at a line waiting for water at a spring in a neighborhood in Cape Town after severe drought leaves the city with dwindling water supplies. After restrictions were imposed in early 2018, citizens have taken to collecting water from local springs, which are not counted in their water restrictions. In response to this violence, guards are posted at the spring and restrictions put on how much water can be collected.
At least eight more people die in an ongoing conflict between the Fulani and Dogon communities in Mali near the town of Koro, sparked by access to water and grazing disputes. Since March 2018, the total death toll from this ongoing conflict is reported to be 25.
37 civilians are killed in the ongoing conflict between herders and farmers who are fighting over access to water and land resources in central Mali.
Herders and farmers who used to coexist peacefully are now inflicting deadly wounds on each other over fights driven by water shortages in the Sahel region of Chad.
A deadly flight between farmers and pastoralists over a watering point near the Kenyan-Ethiopian border leaves eleven people dead, two injured, and four missing.