Sub-Saharan Africa

Since South Sudan’s independence in 2011, ongoing violent conflicts have harmed and destroyed water infrastructure across the country.

The Orma and Degoodi clans wage war over grazing land and water due to a severe drought, with 10 fatalities.

The Marehan and Garre clans clash over land and water rights, with 34 fatalities.

One man stabbed to death during fight over clean water during famine in Ethiopia.

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 40 people die in Kenya and Ethiopia in continuing clashes over water, livestock, and grazing land. Fighting occurs in the southern Ethiopia in the region of Oromo and the northern Kenya Marsabit district.

Scarce water and land resources have forced herdsmen, mainly of the Fulani ethnic group, to move into regions of the country that are used as farmland, leading to deathly conflicts between the herdsmen and farmers. In 2016 alone these conflicts led to 2,500 deaths. The violence has continued into 2018.

At least two water trucks being used to deliver supplies to the Ethiopian army are targeted by remotely-triggered bombs. At least four civilians are killed and another eight are injured.

Sixteen bombs are reported to have exploded throughout the city of Lusaka, Zambia, with damage targeted at water pipes, power lines, and the Angolan Embassy. At least one person is killed and two are injured. Many people are without water and power for many days after the explosions. No one claims responsibility for the bombs, however, it is speculated that the attackers were seeking to discredit the Zambian government by causing chaos.

Five aid workers, employed by the charity Water for Life, are kidnapped at gunpoint in Somalia. This is one of the first instances of Somali natives being kidnapped, as well as one of the first instances of a woman being kidnapped.