The number of political violence and protest events increased over the past month in Zimbabwe. The spike in violence is largely due to an increase in the incidence of violence against civilians, which doubled between August and September (see Figure 1). This spike in violence against civilians comes after months of upheaval against the Mugabe…
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The number of conflict and protest events has steadily risen in South Africa due to student demonstrations in universities across South Africa concerning a rise in tuition fees. The recent spike in protest activity represents a repeat of the student demonstrations against rising tuition fees witnessed last year. The demonstrations were successfully pressured the government…
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On 14 August 2016 an attack by suspected ADF-NALU rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) North Kivu province killed between 45-51 people (Xinhua, 14 August 2016; Telesur, 16 August 2016), with some official estimates putting the fatality count as high as 75-101 (Al Jazeera, 14 August 2016; United Methodist News, 17 August 2016).…
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Since November 2015, Ethiopia’s Oromia region has witnessed an unprecedented wave of popular mobilisation. Mass protests swept across Oromia’s main towns and villages, reflecting widespread discontent with a large-scale development strategy promoted by the Ethiopian government (ACLED Crisis Blog, 4 March 2016). Violent state repression in Oromia have killed more than 400 people over the…
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Riots and protests increased in Gabon since July 2016. The majority of these events are related to the candidacy and later re-election of President Ali Bongo Ondimba by a margin of 5,594 votes amidst calls of election fraud (Al Jazeera, 31 August 2016). The intensity and location of protests provides insight into the prospects of…
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Conflict events in Nigeria declined in August, continuing a trend that has persisted since the Nigerian Army’s offensive against Boko Haram positions in March 2016. The March offensive was concentrated in the insurgent’s base in the Alagarno forest in Borno State (Sahara Reporters, 3 March 2016). Operations were also conducted in Adamawa, Taraba and Yobe…
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Zambia provides a typical case study for the growing protest movements appearing in sub-Saharan Africa in response to fragile economies and illiberal multiparty democracy (The Economist, 20 August 2016). With declining copper prices, unequal distribution of wealth (World Bank, 8 April 2016) and claims of a fraudulent election victory for Edgar Lungu, since May 2016…
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A new update of the recent unrest in Burundi, covering events from 26 April 2015 to 21 August 2016 has been released by ACLED. This update can be found here. ACLED has covered the Burundi crisis with regular data updates and blog posts since June 2015, relying on a combination of news sources and local…
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A new update of the recent unrest in Burundi, covering events from 26 April 2015 to 14 August 2016 has been released by ACLED. This update can be found here. ACLED has covered the Burundi crisis with regular data updates and blog posts since June 2015, relying on a combination of news sources and local…
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Zimbabwe conflict and protest events rose markedly in June through to August 2016 and reached their highest levels since November 2015 (see Figure 1). In this period, protests and riots accounted for the majority of events with only a small percentage constituting violence against civilians. The rise in protest action is due to increased activism…
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