I. Tracking armed conflicts and peace processes in 2018

Chapter:

2. Armed conflict and peace processes

Source:

SIPRI Yearbook 2019

Author(s):

Ian Davies

In 2018, active armed conflicts occurred in 27 states: 1 in the Americas; 7 in Asia and Oceania; 1 in Europe; 7 in the Middle East and North Africa; and 11 in sub-Saharan Africa (see sections II–VI, respectively).¹ As in preceding years, the vast majority took place within a single country (intrastate), between government forces and one or more armed non-state groups. Only one was fought between states (the border clashes between India and Pakistan), and two were fought between state forces and armed groups that aspired to statehood, with the fighting sometimes spilling outside the recognized state’s borders (between Israel and the Palestinians and between Turkey and the Kurds). Of the intrastate conflicts, three were major armed conflicts (with more than 10 000 conflict-related deaths in the year)—Afghanistan (approximately 43 700 reported fatalities), Yemen (30 700) and Syria (30 200)—and 13 were high-intensity armed conflicts (with 1000–9999 conflict-related deaths in the year)—Iraq (6200), Nigeria (6200), Somalia (5100), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, 3000), Turkey (2000), the Philippines (1800), Mali (1800), Ethiopia (1600), South Sudan (1500), Cameroon (1500), Egypt (1200), the Central African Republic (CAR, 1200) and Libya (1100). These categorizations should be considered tentative, however; as the compiler of these fatalities data, the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), cautioned: ‘Fatality information is the most biased, and least accurate, part of any conflict report and extreme caution should be employed when using any fatality number to show patterns’.² All three major armed conflicts and most of the high-intensity armed conflicts were internationalized; that is, they involved foreign elements that helped prolong or exacerbate the conflict.