Assignment 4: Clayton Dyer
February 5, 2016
For Assignment 4 I found a data set online from ACLED (Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project), and organization that complied information regarding armed conflicts including location, type of conflict, fatalities, and notes concerning what took place. Through this organization I found a data set that recorded every armed conflict in African from 1997 to 2011. I used this data to compile the map below.
I narrowed down the data to show only incidents which produced at least 25 fatalities. The conflicts are then categorized by type of conflict, with categories including riots or protests, violence against civilians, non-state actors overtaking territory, and government regaining territory. These categories are color-coded in the legend on the bottom of the map.
Looking at the map it is clear that the majority of violent conflicts occurred in Central and South Africa, with Nigeria, Sudan, Angola, and Kenya as the locations of the majority of deadly conflicts. It is interesting to note that the type of violence varies slightly among countries. For example, Nigeria and Uganda appear to have more violence against civilians, while Angola and Somalia, and Sudan have an influx of battles with no change of territory.
Data acquired from: http://www.acleddata.com/data/realtime-data-2016/