Welcome to the February issue of the Armed Conflict Location & Event Dataset (ACLED) Conflict Trends. Each month, ACLED researchers gather, analyse and publish data on political violence in Africa in realtime. Monthly updates to realtime conflict event data are published through our research partners at Climate Change and African Political Stability (CCAPS) and also on the ACLED website.
In addition, historical data from January 1997 to December 2013 is contained in ACLED Version 4 is available online at acleddata.com, along with previous Conflict Trends reports, country profiles and other resources.
This month, the Trends report focuses on the dramatic escalation of conflict in Central African Republic, political developments in Kenya and Mozambique and prospects for peace in South Sudan, as well as providing an overview of Version 4 of the ACLED dataset through the lens of reported fatalities. Elsewhere on the continent, conflict levels have continued to gradually decline in Somalia for the fourth month in a row, alongside a more recent decline in fatalities; while conflict has been ongoing and escalating in the north-east of the continent in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt.