Welcome to the January issue of the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project’s (ACLED) Conflict Trends report.
Each month, ACLED researchers gather, analyse and publish data on political violence in Africa in realtime. Weekly updates to realtime conflict event data are published on the ACLED website, and are also available through our research partners at Climate Change and African Political Stability (CCAPS).
This month, ACLED launched Version 6: a fully revised and updated conflict and protest event dataset containing records of all political violence and protest in Africa from 1997 through 2015 inclusive. This month’s report is an overview of conflict in 2015 and profiles sexual violence in Central African Republic, on-going police abuses in Egypt in 2016, Islamic State attacks and expanding quasi-military activity in Libya, religious-based violence in Nigeria, increased conflict activity by off-shoot militias in South Sudan and violence against civilians in North Darfur, Sudan.
Elsewhere on the continent, political violence increased in Burundi, Chad, Ethiopia and Mali throughout 2015, conflict levels decreased in Somalia and DR-Congo, with persistent levels of violence experienced in Nigeria.