There was an overall decrease in the number of political violence and protest events recorded across the South and Southeast Asian regions last week relative to the previous week. In Afghanistan, two important developments, with possible impact on future conflict trends, took place. Firstly, the Afghan government agreed on a public deal with the Taliban…
Political violence and protest events in Africa over the week of 25 February showed at least three key developments and points of concern. First, Islamist militants attacked for the third time since January 2016 Burkina Faso’s Ouagadougou. The militants struck both the army headquarters and the French embassy, resulting in 16 killed among both the…
Largely static levels of events and reported fatalities were recorded in the Middle East this week outside of Iraq, Syria, and Yemen; both state and non-state groups made gains in different areas. In Iraq, there were almost twice as many battles as the previous week, with almost all of them involving IS. These events ended…
Many believe Syria constitutes the worst crisis in a decade. Indeed, the UN Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner has stopped counting fatalities in 2014,[1] the amount of US (2017) and Russian (2016) airstrikes is unprecedented[2] and after distinct crises such as Sinjar, Khan Shaykhun new ones continue to arise (Eastern Ghouta, Afrin). How…
There was an increase in attacks by Boko Haram in northern Cameroon (Extreme-Nord region) in the week of 18-24 February, as five attacks perpetrated against civilians caused seventeen deaths. Last week’s events are consistent with a trend from 7-13 January and 14-20 January, which experienced high levels of violence against civilians. Boko Haram activities slightly…
Protests in Nouakchott increased last week, as they had in the past when a ‘lenient’ verdict was given for blogger Mohamed Cheikh Ould Mkhaitir (accused of apostasy) and during the constitutional referendum in August 2017. The latter imposed the abolition of the senate, devolution of power to regional councils, a new flag and a new…
In this series of infographics, we explore active actors in Syria. The first visual features the state of Syria in February 2018.
The Islamic State (IS) first appeared in Pakistan around April 2015, in the Tirah Valley area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and has since established itself more thoroughly throughout the country. Although operations by the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) have in recent years managed to push the group closer to the border with Afghanistan, incidents of suicide…
On December 6, 2017, President Donald Trump announced that the US would recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and that it would be relocating its embassy from Tel Aviv to there (New York Times, December 6, 2017). This announcement, which was seen as undermining the peace process, led to a dramatic rise in protest…
The highest number of fatalities in Yemen have occurred in Taiz governorate, with nearly twice as many fatalities reported within its borders relative to any other governorate in the country. Since January 1, 2017, ACLED has recorded over 500 civilian fatalities (with the true number of civilian fatalities possibly higher as a result of collateral…