In the first half of 2018, political violence in the Central African Republic has both increased and spread to new regions. See the maps of Aug-Dec 2017 and Jan-May 2018 to observe the spread of violence across new regions. In the second half of 2017, only the Haute-Kotto region experienced intense conflict, notably around Bria,…
2018 has seen modest levels of political violence and protest events in South Africa relative to preceding years. The decrease in events can be explained by a number of factors, including the absence of elections (election violence), the decrease in student protests at tertiary institutions nationwide and the February 2018 change in leadership from the…
On 27 January 2018, the Jordanian government approved a new budget which removed subsidies on wheat and imposed a tax hike on over 100 common items. However, protests in the kingdom were less attended and less widespread than anticipated due to the same factors that limited protests during the Arab Spring. During the Arab Spring,…
In this series of infographics, ACLED’s Research Analyst, Melissa Pavlik, explores 5 hidden or under-reported conflicts across Asia. 5. Gau Rakshak Cow Vigilantism in India (2016-Present) 4. India’s Naxalite-Maoist Insurgency (2016-Present) 3. Political Violence & Protests in India’s Northeast (2016-Present) 2. Separatism in the Balochistan Regions of Iran, India, and Pakistan (2017-Present) 1. Tehreek-i-Taliban (TTP) Activity in Pakistan…
The number of demonstrations in Iran has remained high this month as the wave of unrest that began in late December 2017 continues (to read more about this, see Demonstrations Across Iran). Over the past months, many of the demonstrations reported in Iran have been related to unemployment, wage delays, and the collapse of financial…
More than two decades after civil war ended in Mozambique, and despite years of economic growth and relatively peaceful elections, the country continues to face political and security challenges. General levels of political violence have continued to rise in 2016 as events have increased in intensity and in geography (68 events of political violence across…
Strong state capacity is difficult to attain in low-income countries where the state lacks access to resources to aid in effectively implementing policies. As a result, incomes are often used as a proxy measurement to determine the strength of state capacity, and states with lower incomes experience some of the highest levels of conflict (see:…
Reigniting the long-standing issue of land acquisition, the proposed amendments to the new 2013 Land Acquisition Act by the Modi-led BJP government in December 2014, have led to nationwide farmer’s protests in India (The Economic Times 2013, BBC 2015). Thousands of farmers took to the streets between January and May 2015, in particular in Bihar…
Widespread dissatisfaction over property rights continues to represent a significant amount of political activity in India. President Modi’s recent effort to reform India’s notoriously dysfunctional property laws has triggered hundreds of protests, galvanizing political parties across the spectrum. Although the bill has yet to pass India’s upper parliamentary house, political parties have used the momentum…
When working with quantitative data, it is often necessary to merge data from multiple datasets. For example, one might want to combine conflict data at the country-level from ACLED with data on health, climate change, gender, etc. from another source.[1] While the two datasets share a common identifying variable (e.g., country name), if these cells…