Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16 calls on the world’s countries to achieve peaceful and inclusive societies and to significantly reduce all forms of violence everywhere. An important first stage in achieving this goal is to understand conflict dynamics over time and across continents as well as the types of violence various actors use. This paper is part of a series, PRIO Papers on Conflict Trends. This series comprises four papers, one on the Middle East, on Africa, one on Asia, and one that provides a global overview. This paper focuses on Africa and aims to help policymakers, decisionmakers, practitioners, and regional and country experts further understand the context in which they work.

In this paper, we provide data on, and examine conflict trends in Africa, particularly since 1989, and place them in a global context. We focus on violence in armed conflict in general but also, specifically on sexual violence in armed conflict. The paper draws on the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP),1 which comprises the best available global data about armed violence, on data from PRIO, and on the Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict (SVAC) Dataset. We examine statebased conflicts, non-state conflicts, and one-sided violence, relying on the UCDP’s conflict definition as conflicts with at least 25 battle-related deaths per year. More specific definitions will be presented in the course of the paper and in section 1.1. below. This paper need not be read from beginning to end and may be used as a reference on peace and conflict trends in the Africa.