VI. Armed conflict and peace processes in sub-Saharan Africa

Chapter:

2. Armed conflict and peace processes

Source:

SIPRI Yearbook 2019

Author(s):

Ian Davies

There were at least 11 countries with active armed conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa in 2018: Burkina Faso (low-intensity, subnational armed conflict), Cameroon (high-intensity, subnational armed conflict), the Central African Republic (CAR) (civil war), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) (high-intensity, subnational armed conflict), Ethiopia (high-intensity, subnational armed conflict), Mali (high-intensity, subnational armed conflict), Niger (low-intensity, subnational armed conflict), Nigeria (high-intensity, subnational armed conflict), Somalia (civil war), South Sudan (civil war) and Sudan (low-intensity, subnational armed conflict).¹ In several other countries, especially Burundi and Mozambique, there were high levels of political violence. Many of these armed conflicts overlapped across states and regions as a result of the transnational activities of violent Islamist groups and other armed groups and criminal networks, and were linked to extreme poverty, instability, economic fragility, ethnic and religious tensions, and low resilience—conditions that were exacerbated by climate change, corruption, ineffective economic policies and competition over natural resources. In addition to these armed conflicts, three cross-cutting issues shaped regional security in 2018: (a) the continuing internationalization of counterterrorism activities in Africa, (b) changes in the scale and frequency of election-related violence and (c) water scarcity and the growing impact of climate change.