How self-defense and vigilante groups strategise, evolve, and impact security.
ACLED’s four-part series on militarized self-defense and vigilantism examines self-protection through violence: how militarized self-defense groups organize and operate, their impact on the behavior of other violent actors, and how their roles change over time. The first report in the series looks at how Dozo self-defense groups have militarized and how they impact the broader conflict environment in central Mali, while the second looks at how self-defense vigilante groups in Haiti are taking up arms to defend their communities and becoming essential to the country’s security response to gang violence.
The first in a series on militarized self-defense and vigilantism, this report examines the structure, operations, evolution, and impact of Dozo self-defense groups in central Mali.
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Gang violence and state responses dominate discussions about Haiti’s security crisis, but vigilantism is playing a growing role in the country.
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