Welcome to the April issue of the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project’s (ACLED) Conflict Trends report. Each month, ACLED researchers gather, analyse and publish data on political violence in Africa in realtime. Weekly updates to realtime conflict event data are published on the ACLED website.
This month’s issue focuses on the scope and scale of operations conducted by the Kamwina Nsapu militia across the Kasai region of the Democratic Republic of Congo, banditry attacks and retaliatory communal violence in Madagascar, the surge of violence in Mali following the recent merger between Islamist groups into the Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen (AQM) group and reduced rebel group activity in Sudan after a period of concessions following the ceasefire agreement.
Elsewhere on the continent, riots and protests over austerity measures continue to fall in Algeria with Bejaia, Bouira, Ouargla and Tizi Ouzou experiencing the sharpest drop-off in activity, Ethiopia is experiencing a qualitative shift in the form of violence as battles involving Oromia militias have replaced riots and protests, and ethnic violence around land issues rose in Kenya.