Why is it so difficult to separate ethnic disputes, socio-economic competition,

It is very difficult to separate these things from each other because they always go hand in hand, not one by one.

Explanation:

When it comes to ethnic disputes, socio-economic competition, struggles for political dominance, and religious animosity, it is impossible to separate them. The reason for that is that they are intermingled and function together. At least two of these are functioning together, though very often it is all four simultaneously.

The ethnic disputes very often tend to occur because of socio-economic compeition between the different groups, mostly when the situation is not good. The religion, especially if the groups have different religions, always comes up on the front to support the ethnic group that follows it, and the political leaders use the opportunity to fuel things up in order to get full control of a particular region, or even outside of the ethnic boundaries.