Armed groups in northwest Africa have “gone rural” in the past few years, according to a new OECD report released this week based on our work in northwest Africa. Using disaggregated data from ACLED, WorldPop and Africapolis, the report examines whether violence display an urban character, how urban and rural violence have changed over time, […]
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Association for Borderlands Studies (ABS) 3rd World Conference, 13-18 February 2023, Ben-Gurion University, Eilat Campus, Israel Session Borders, Cities and Conflicts Organizers Olivier J. Walther, University of Florida; Steven M. Radil, U.S. Air Force Academy Session description Cities and borders have long been synonymous with warfare, insurgency, and the many other forms of politically motivated […]
Conflicts in North and West Africa are increasingly transnational, making borders, borderlands, and border communities ever more important for the stability of the state. Building on a disaggregated analysis of more than 171 000 violent events collected by ACLED, our Lab examined the increasing importance of border regions in the development of armed conflicts in the […]
On November 4th, 2021, the University of Florida Board of Trustees signed a memorandum of understanding with the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) to encourage research on conflict and political violence. Signed on behalf of the University of Florida African Networks Lab, the new agreement will facilitate access to conflict data and […]
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While the location of violent events and their propensity to cluster together in space is increasingly well known, a deeper exploration of their spatiality and spatial evolution over time remains an emerging frontier in conflict studies. To fill this gap, we introduce a new Spatial Conflict Dynamics indicator (SCDi) that measures both the intensity and […]
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Call for papers American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting, NYC, 25 Feb-1 March 2022 Session title Geographies of conflict in North and West Africa Organizers Olivier Walther, University of Florida; Steven Radil, U.S. Air Force Academy; David Russell, Princeton University; Matthew Pflaum, University of Florida Session description: The geography of conflict in North and West Africa […]
By Matthew Pflaum and Charis Li Camp Senou is one of the many displacement camps that emerged in Mali following the 2012 civil war and the consequent insecurity. Opened in 2019 in the southern fringes of Bamako, the camp shows no fences, legitimate signage, security guards, or any other official accoutrements of an internally displaced […]
Read more "Survivors of war: Internally displaced camps and the Malian conflict"
Borderlands are more violent than any other regions in North and West Africa. Examining the geography of violent events across 21 states and 23 years, our new paper published in the Journal of Borderlands Studies shows that the further from the border, the fewer violent events are observed. As shown below, since 1997, nearly 9% of […]
Which regions have experienced the highest levels of political insecurity in North and West Africa since the late 1990s? Do conflicts tend to cluster or spread across the region, potentially across borders? And how do foreign military interventions affect the geography of conflict from Dakar to N’Djamena? Find out in this new OECD report. More […]
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The new OECD report on security was launched at the Sahel Coalition this week. Entitled “Conflict networks in North and West Africa”, the report maps the evolution of alliances and rivalries in the region since the late 1990s. Using Dynamic Social Network Analysis, the report examines how rivalries and alliances shape patterns of violence across the region […]