The Al-Shabaab militant group emerged as an offshoot of the Islamic Courts Union which controlled Mogadishu in 2006, while a transitional federal government was in exile in Kenya. The country went through three presidents in a week in November—and it might soon have another if it doesn’t pursue a constitutional referendum like neighboring Chile. Nearly 3,000 women were killed in South Africa in 2017/18, according to the South African Police Service. However, the GNA, which is recognised by the UN, continues to face opposition from within the HoR and GNC. Since civil war broke out in 2013, about 380,000 people are reported to have been killed and more than two million have been forced to flee their homes. The UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) was established in April 2013 to support political processes and bolster security in the country. Alex de Waal is the executive director of the World Peace Foundation and a research professor at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. 2019-10-14. As the norms and principles of the United Nations and the African Union are weakened, the danger of interstate war in Africa increases. When the Liberian political entrepreneur Charles Taylor began an insurgency in 1989, he did so with arms and men from nearby Burkina Faso, whose leader Blaise Compaoré was practically a pyromaniac, lighting conflagrations in Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast as well. Currently led by Abubakar Shekau, the jihadist group’s initial objective was to confront what it perceived as the westernization of Nigerian culture. Since then several other armed groups emerged or splintered off from existing ones with different interests related to self-determination and political and socio-economic grievances. It also will attract greater attention from the international partners, which increasingly view Editorial The conflict in South Sudan was all too predictable. ... Africa. Fighting has been between the House of Representatives’ (HoR) which came into office in 2014 and controls eastern and southern Libya and its Tripoli-based rival, the General National Congress (GNC). Occasionally this is just a matter of a government quietly tolerating the guerrillas from a neighboring country using a refugee camp to recruit or a porous border to smuggle weapons. In West Africa, the countries include Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Togo. In February 2019, the Government and 14 armed groups signed a peace agreement which has led to fewer direct clashes. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Ethiopia and Sudan each sponsored rebels in the neighboring country with training camps, arms, and logistics, through policy decisions made right at the top. An estimated 80,000 young men and women died, almost all of them soldiers who perished in mass infantry attacks. Africa Security Sub-Saharan Africa Russia’s Strategy in Africa. Africa. Get the latest African news from BBC News in Africa: breaking news, features, analysis and special reports plus audio and video from across the African continent. The initial trigger was the Séléka armed opposition entering the capital city Bangui in March 2013 in opposition to then-President François Bozizé and effectively seizing control of the country. Below are some examples of current Conflicts In Nigeria. About 18,500 UN peacekeepers, including military and police personnel, provide security for civilians threatened by the armed groups and support the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of former combatants. More than 50% of the world’s armed conflicts are in one continent, Africa, and analysts agree that diamonds and other precious metals as well as power struggles are the biggest causes. This list of ongoing armed conflicts identifies present-day conflicts and the death toll … For almost 20 years, the two countries were locked in a cold war, with their armies mobilized in force along their common border. But it adds a new layer of explanations. Meanwhile, the two governments did everything they could to destabilize each other by supporting each other’s political opposition, including guerrilla groups that infiltrated across the border. A second deadline to form a unity government has passed with Mr Machar expressing concerns over some unresolved issues. Many of the current conflicts are driven by prospects of political power or financial gain, with armed groups fighting to acquire valuable mineral resources, assert their ideology or address grievances. The continent's economy grew by roughly 3.4 percent in 2017, creating one of the longest stretches of uninterrupted positive economic expansion in Africa's history. It works with the media in Africa and beyond to promote the work of the United Nations, Africa and the international community to bring peace and development to Africa. This is a list of conflicts in Africa arranged by country, both on the continent and associated islands, including wars between African nations, civil wars, and wars involving non-African nations that took place within Africa. After a brutal civil war, South Sudan declared its independence from Sudan in 2011. No person in South Africa will go hungry. More than five million people have been killed in the Congolese war, according to the news agency Reuters. It works to support peace consolidation, assist in protecting civilians, create suitable conditions for the delivery of humanitarian assistance, among other tasks. When Nigeria, which sees itself as the West African regional hegemon, sent troops to Liberia in 1990, ostensibly as a West African peacekeeping force (the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group), the aim wasn’t only to stabilize Liberia and prevent Taylor from taking power, but also to rein in Compaoré’s ambitions and cement Nigeria’s status as the West African powerbroker. African Continental Free Trade Agreement. There have been only a handful of regime change invasions—such as when Tanzania toppled Uganda’s Idi Amin in 1979, and Libya’s invasion of Chad under Muammar al-Qaddafi. 2019 will be a crucial year for sub-Saharan Africa. With approximately 14,000 peacekeepers, MINUSCA continues to support the implementation of the peace deal and its other mandated tasks. Listed below are the current wars and conflicts in the continent of Africa. Without a central administration, Somalia became a failed state, with rival warlords and different groups controlling the capital Mogadishu and other southern parts of the country. The most powerful of those armed groups are backed by Rwanda. Many of these groups fight each other, while others from neighbouring countries use the Congolese territory to launch attacks on their home countries. In a recent article in the Journal of Modern African Studies, some colleagues and I found that just 30 percent of African conflicts since 1960 were “internal” and the remainder a mixture of “internationalized internal” and “interstate”: fully 70 percent were actually internationalized in one way or another. The countries’ leaders both promised change, but only one has delivered. The 15,000 uniformed and civilian personnel work to support the implementation of the peace agreement and reduce violence. The nature of violent conflicts in Africa has changed since before independence when they were mostly ideologically-driven guerilla warfare. However, they are not the only issues to consider. African wars are seen instead as domestic, civil wars. This month, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the bold steps he took last year to make peace with Eritrea. In response, the UN Security Council established the UN Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) in April 2014. A peacekeeper on the UN base in Kida, Mali, where they ensure the security of the civilian population. It will remain bogged down in conflicts in the Cameroon, Central African Republic, Mali, Nigeria, South Sudan, and Somalia. ... interstate conflict. Ethiopia gradually gained the upper hand, launching a vast ground offensive in the spring of 2000 that cut through the defending Eritrean forces and threatened to capture the capital, Asmara. The new data doesn’t invalidate dominant stories about how African conflicts originate or escalate. Fighting between armed Islamist groups and pro-government forces has led to the deaths of thousands of civilians and the displacement of over two million people. In April 2014, the group abducted 276 girls from a school in Chibok, a village in Borno State, northeast Nigeria. A better Africa and World. As part of its women, peace and security efforts, it is actively working to increase women’s participation in political processes. In April 2019, Khalifa Haftar, the head of the self-styled Libyan National Army, which controls much of the countryside, launched an attack on Tripoli. Ethiopian forces routed the courts union, paving the way for the government in exile to return home. And indeed, since African countries achieved independence in the 1950s and 1960s—and especially since 1964, when the newly founded Organisation of African Unity adopted its “Cairo Declaration” on the inviolability of inherited colonial boundaries—there have been few border wars and just two successful secessions (Eritrea and South Sudan). The killing of a top nuclear scientist has unsettled Tehran, but it’s still talking about a new deal with the United States. The region will hold presidential elections in at least nine countries, including Nigeria and South Africa. 5 goals. This article draws on research conducted jointly with Noel Twagiramungu, Mulugeta Gebrehiwot Berhe, and Allard Duursma. Now, they’ve found a new hero in Abiy Ahmed. This is a bold plan which I believe we will achieve. It reveals a story of pan-African cooperation to support anti-colonial insurgencies in southern Africa; of mutual destabilization in the Horn of Africa, as Ethiopia sought to cement its position as regional hegemon and undermined governments in Somalia and Sudan and they reciprocated; of Libya’s invasion of Chad and sponsorship of rebels across the Sahel and West Africa to try to establish Muammar al-Qaddafi as the big man of Africa; of rivalries between Nigeria, Ivory Coast, and Burkina Faso fought out in Liberia and Sierra Leone; and of how the path towards Africa’s “great war” in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was paved by interstate armed rivalries and proxy wars in the African Great Lakes, the Nile Valley, and Angola. Key events that shaped the Middle East and North Africa in 2019. Peace agreements for countries such as the Central African Republic, Mali, and Somalia first cater to the interests of the regional powerbrokers and only second deal with internal issues. ... October 22, 2019, 2:14 PM. Analyses of security threats in the continent focus on fragile and failing states, ethnic rivalries, violent extremism, and conflict over natural resources. The Nobel award should alert policymakers to an underappreciated danger to peace and security in Africa: interstate war, either overt or—more often—covert and through proxies. In the DRC, the U.N. Force Intervention Brigade (FIB) is a combat force to supplement the peacekeeping mission, with the aim of suppressing violent insurgents in the east of the country. The UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) was established in 2011 and consists of about 17,000 uniformed and civilian personnel. Instead, armed rivalry takes different, disguised forms: covert war and proxy war between states is common—in fact, it’s standard. In several countries, incumbent long serving political leaders have found ways to manipula… Much has been written about the ongoing conflict over the status of the Southern Cameroons. Armed groups started competing for power. Rumors of Russian involvement in Mali have gained momentum since 2018. The Nobel award should alert policymakers to an underappreciated danger to peace and security in Africa: interstate war, either overt or—more often—covert and through proxies. Despite efforts by various stakeholders to establish a peaceful Africa, armed conflicts continue in parts of the continent. But that doesn’t mean that they are innocent. Official pleas of ignorance or incapacity to police a border are a convenient excuse. A study by a German academic says religious conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa have been on the rise for decades. The media are abuzz with two big questions: first, whether Ahmed deserves it, and second, why Afwerki was not honored—as is customary when two countries make peace. Somalia is a case in point. Share on: Updated on November 28 2020. Scores of Chadian soldiers have died, a price that the country’s government is willing to pay because of its own security interests. This fighting persists and has been further complicated by the fragmentation and reforming of alliances. The war in the DRC is one of Africa’s deadliest. The backbone of the African Union Mission in Somalia, a combat mission against the militant group al-Shabab, is made up of troops from next-door Ethiopia and Kenya, both of which have used force against Somalia many times over the previous decades. Across the continent, in other words, old patterns of cross-border conflict are now replicated under the banner of peacekeeping, endorsed by the United Nations, the African Union, and Africa’s regional organizations. In 2019, there were 14 disputes in Sub-Saharan Africa. Current Conflicts In Africa 2020 And Where They Occur. But there’s a third issue hiding in the background, and it has to do with interstate peacemaking in Africa. The Mano River countries of West Africa—Liberia, Sierra Leone, and their neighbors—followed the same pattern. A UN arms embargo continues to be breached with both sides drawing on international support for weapons. The UN, the African Union and others are cooperating in support of the agreement to end violence against civilians, strengthen the extension of state authority and bring social and economic development to the country. Poverty. In East Africa, the countries include Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Uganda. In 2012, the Tuareg separatist rebels of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawa (MNLA) conquered northern Mali. Most of the time, involvement in a neighbor’s war is authorized at the highest level and implemented systematically, if secretively, by military intelligence or national security. Notably, when an international boundary commission awarded a small but symbolically crucial piece of land called Badme, where the war had started, to Eritrea, Ethiopia refused to hand it over. Each country also deployed its own troops clandestinely in the other’s territory—Ethiopian commanders led operations under the flag of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), for example. Although the poverty rate in Africa has dropped in recent years, rapid population growth … First, it was the struggle for independence from the colonial rule then liberation from dictatorships that merged from independence. ), and global conflicts in which Africa was a theatre of war. In South Sudan, there are 64 tribes, among these tribes is Dinkas which is the largest of all. Despite gains against the group, Al-Shabaab insurgents continue to launch sporadic attacks against civilians and the government. It is closely observed that the majority of current conflicts in Africa are more of arms conflicts. The genesis of the conflict and the issues at stake have been well covered elsewhere. Historyguy.com Historyguy.com>Current Wars of Africa. South Sudan rebels take their battle to the oilfields. Al Shabaab carried out attacks against the government, prompting the deployment of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) in 2007. Similar calculations underpin Chad’s dispatch of special forces to Operation Barkhane in Mali, which is a French-led military intervention to fight al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and other insurgent groups. The mission would be inconceivable without some real advantage to the national interests of its major troop contributors. But is the Nobel Prize an effort to make amends or influence Ethiopia’s political future? Insecurity persists in the DR Congo, Somalia, South Sudan, Nigeria, Central African Republic, Mali and Libya. The report says, African countries have undergone two forms of governance liberation, yet remain stuck in the middle of a third one. Fifteen Countries There are currently fifteen African countries involved in war, or are experiencing post-war conflict and tension. In 2012, a new federal government was constituted. The Somali civil war began in 1991 when the government of President Siad Barre was overthrown. However, tensions persisted over natural resources, specifically access to the oil fields in newly-independent South. List of ongoing Conflicts. As with every world region, peace and security in Africa exists in a tension between international proscriptions against war and the rules of real power. Communities were divided, trade was cut, and vast numbers of Eritrean youth served indefinite compulsory military service on the front line. In the first half of 2019, about 732,000 new displacements were recorded, 718,000 associated with conflict and 14,000 associated with disasters, posing additional challenges for the new DRC government. Also at play is Chadian President Idriss Déby’s desired role as preferred African counterterrorism enforcer, which keeps his elite troops on the international payroll and gives him a free pass for domestic repression. While seasoned federal officials are being fired, Trump’s loyalists are coming back, threatening fresh tensions between the outgoing administration and Congress. The UN Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) provides policy advice to the Somali government and AMISOM on security sector reforms, disengaging combatants, rule of law, among other issues. If one place has borne the brunt of international lawlessness over the past year it is Yemen. Furthermore, it is involved in disarmament, demobilisation and community violence reduction efforts. That didn’t happen: The Ethiopians agreed a cease-fire and the terms of a peace deal, signed in Algiers soon after the offensive. It encompasses colonial wars, wars of independence, secessionist and separatist conflicts, major episodes of national violence (riots, massacres, etc. MINUSMA is one of the UN’s most challenging operations and it has suffered significant casualties in recent years. Matters have also been strained between the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement led by President Salva Kiir, and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition led by Mr. Kiir’s former vice president Riek Machar. Africa’s ‘Civil Wars’ Are Regional Nightmares. What has not been clearly articulated is the role religion is playing in the conflict and the effect the conflict is having on the religious imagination in the region. Current Wars of Africa . Africa Watch: 2020 is election season across Africa, Silencing the Guns campaign kicks off in 2020, Work in progress for Africa’s remaining conflict hotspots, African youth and the growth of violent extremism, We must involve women in the peace process, Drying Lake Chad Basin gives rise to crisis, Address development issues in the Lake Chad Basin, Small arms fueling deadly communal violence, Battling the damaging effects of ‘fast fashion’, African airlines navigate turbulent skies, Africa’s regional integration will benefit all, Partnerships: Creating opportunities for youth, President Julius Maada Bio speaks on child and maternal mortality in Sierra Leone, Black-eyed peas: A taste of Africa in the Americas, Bigger than Africa: Tales of the Yoruba people, Global Teacher Prize winner champions STEM, Africa Wired: E-commerce offers fresh opportunities for young traders, Book Review: Africa’s Critical Choices: a call for a Pan-African roadmap, Inclusive governance and regional focus will help drive Africa’s industrialization, Illicit Financial Flows: It’s time to end the plunder of Africa’s resources, The Office of the Special Adviser on Africa (OSAA), New Partnership for Africa's Development (AUDA-NEPAD), United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). In Africa, this rarely takes the form of conventional wars over boundaries or invasions to install a new regime. View the latest Africa news and videos from Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Libya, Liberia and other African countries on CNN.com. While some of the world’s leading economies struggle to … The Boko Harem insurgency in Nigeria that began in 2009 has extended to neighbouring countries, including Cameroon, Chad and Niger. However, fighting continues with armed Islamist groups attacking civilians, state counterterrorism actions, and intercommunal violence. The UN Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO) also helps to strengthen institutions for reconciliation, law enforcement and justice, and the equitable management of natural resources. Russia has been accused of backing the coup that took place in August 2020, orchestrated by high ranking members of the Malian army. A 2015 peace deal fell apart after clashes between government forces and rebels. More than 112 girls remain missing. current edition: US edition News Opinion Sport Culture ... it could take the Horn of Africa with it. It began in 1998 with the involvement of about 20 different armed groups who maraud the country’s vast jungles. Long considered domestic issues, the continent’s battles are really international contests for influence and power. Civil wars on each side haven’t just spilled over to the other as if by natural contamination. Take the Ethiopia-Sudan border. Among the several armed groups are the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda; the Allied Democratic Forces, a Ugandan rebel group based in the Rwenzori Mountains of eastern Congo; the Lord’s Resistance Army, another Ugandan rebel group based along the northern border; the National Forces of Liberation, a Burundian rebel group operating in South Kivu; and the Mai-Mai militias operating in the Kivu. The conventional wisdom is that African states frequently go to war, but not with one another—with the Eritrean-Ethiopian war standing as the conspicuous exception that proves the rule. Rather, power hierarchies have been legitimized, and peace operations have become part of dominant states’ repertoire of power projection. Between 1998 and 2000, the two countries fought an extremely bloody border war. But the terms of the peace deal were never implemented. Conflict Trends in Africa, 1989–2017 ISBN: 978-82-7288-886-1 (print) 978-82-7288-887-8 (online) • In the past five years, there has been an increase in the number of conflicts in Africa. Security conditions deteriorated further in December when clashes erupted between various armed groups. A few managed to escape or be rescued. Despite efforts by various stakeholders to establish a peaceful Africa, armed conflicts continue in parts of the continent. In December 2015, the warring parties signed the Libyan Political Agreement (LPA), committing to a Government of National Accord (GNA). They returned with sophisticated weapons to join the 2012 attack on northern Mali after the fall of Gaddafi’s government. Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition partner has signaled he is ready for fresh elections amid an impasse over a 2021 budget. Others simply exploit the country’s mineral resources, including gold, platinum and coltan fueling the various conflicts further. Are terrorist groups stoking local conflicts in the Sahel? African Continental Free Trade Agreement. This includes support to implementation of the LPA and future phases of the transition process. The SPLA fought against Oromo rebels inside Ethiopia in the 1980s; the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front in turn repelled an SPLA operation inside Sudan’s Blue Nile province in 1990. During the last 15 years, as the African Union and United Nations, along with regional organizations such as the Economic Community of West African States, have constructed a new peace and security order for Africa, these patterns of armed interstate rivalry have not gone away. All these issues are key drivers of what to expect in political Africa in 2019. Disorder spread across ACLED’s areas of coverage last year, with political violence and protest surging in more countries than they declined. The FIB’s main troop contributors are South Africa and Tanzania—both of which have political interests in keeping Rwanda’s ambitions in check. Hundreds and thousands of people have lost their lives due to conflicts and civil wars. The Africa Renewal information programme provides up-to-date information and analysis of the major economic and development challenges facing Africa today. About 1,000 people were reported to have been killed in that attack and more than 128,000 displaced since the latest round of the conflict began in April. They also protect civilians, support the re-establishment of state institutions and basic services, and support the cantonment, disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of armed groups. Up to 500 killed in South Sudan as violence spreads, says UN. He embraced Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki, opened the border and promised to implement the controversial boundary ruling. Last year’s peace deal for South Sudan was first and foremost a pact between the country’s two meddlesome neighbors, Sudan and Uganda. A new “revitalized” peace agreement was signed in 2018 however progress is slow. Western leaders long saw the authoritarian Meles Zenawi as an indispensable ally. That puts the murder rate for adult women at nearly 15.2 per 100,000, fact-checking organisation Africa Check calculated. In 2009, Eritrea’s support for anti-Ethiopian jihadi groups in Somalia brought down the wrath of the U.N. Security Council, which imposed a draconian sanctions regime on the country—one that continued even after Eritrea abandoned its backing for those groups three years later. The threat is growing and can easily be predicted, and now is a good moment to put it on the policy radar. A boy living in a derelict building damaged during the Angolan civil war is seen through a hole in Kuito, in Angola’s Bie province, on June 2. More than 600,000 people are internally displaced, and thousands have been killed. Two million more young people will be in employment. The UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) was established in September 2011 to assist the country’s transitional authorities in their post-conflict efforts. The humanitarian crisis there – the world’s worst – could deteriorate further in 2019 if the key players do not seize the opportunity created over the past weeks by UN Special Envoy Martin Griffiths in achieving a partial ceasefire and encouraging a series of confidence-building steps.