Africa at war: 28 of 59 armed conflicts worldwide in 2023 occurred on the continent

About half of the 59 armed conflicts worldwide in 2023 — the highest number since the end of World War II — occurred in Africa, according to a new study released by the Peace Research Institute of Oslo (PRIO).

Last year witnessed 59 conflicts around the globe, of which 28 armed conflicts took place in Africa, followed by Asia with 17, the Middle East with 10, Europe with three and the Americas with one, the Norway-based organization said. “Violence in the world is at an all-time high since the end of the Cold War,” said Siri Aas Rustad, PRIO researcher and the main author. Although the number of conflicts grew in 2023, led by the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, the number of countries that experienced conflicts declined to 34 from 39 a year earlier. The number of deaths in combat last year also dropped by half to around 122,000 from 2022, according to data collected by Sweden’s Uppsala University from NGOs and international organizations.

The increase in the number of conflicts can partially be attributed to the spread of ISIL (ISIS) across Africa, the Middle East and Asia and the involvement in general of a growing number of non-state actors, such as the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Group to Support Islam and Muslims (JNIM). Compared to ten years ago, the number of conflicts in Africa has nearly doubled, from 15 in 2013 to 28 in 2023.

The earlier drop in the number of conflicts in the Middle East have reversed with an increase from eight to ten from 2022 to 2023. Yemen has replaced Afghanistan as the world’s least peaceful country, followed by Sudan, South Sudan, Afghanistan, and Ukraine, according to the Global Peace Index (GPI).