Welcome to the January 2014 issue of the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) Conflict Trends. Each month, ACLED researchers gather, analyse and publish data on political violence in Africa in realtime. Real-time conflict event data is published through our research partners at Climate Change and African Political Stability (CCAPS) where it is updated monthly.
In addition, the full version of the dataset is updated annually, and this month marks the release of Version 4 of the ACLED dataset, covering political violence in Africa from January 1997 - December 2013 inclusive.
Figure 1 shows the countries in which the number of po-politically violent events increased, decreased and saw no change from 2012 to 2013. This issue of Conflict Trends will provide an overview of 2013 as captured in Version 4 of the ACLED dataset, before profiling dynamics in North Africa, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Somalia and South Sudan, with an emphasis on countries which have persistently experienced instability over the course of the past few years, and those which have witnessed increased volatility in the last 12 months.