On 11 July 2016, government forces stormed Terrain, a residential compound in Juba, South Sudan. Systematic violence, looting, and vandalism ensued—including one fatality, multiple incidents of rape and torture, as well as destroyed property.
The year 2017 saw the second highest annual rate of global violent deaths in the period 2004–17, according to this Briefing Paper from the Small Arms Survey.
The history of Tripoli after the fall of Qaddafi is one of conflict, shifting control, fractured alliances, and the quest for power and influence. Central among the players in this quest have been the militias controlling the capital’s territory. In the past two years, that control has consolidated into the hands of a cartel: four militias whose military dominance, influence in government, and power over the resources of the state is unprecedented.
The conflict that toppled former Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi in 2011 has affected Algeria in various ways. As a neighbour and a regional power, Algeria has largely looked to dialogue and engagement, playing a key role in international efforts to stabilize Libya. But the chaos that often characterizes its neighbour has moved Algiers to modify some of its long-held principles to ensure its interests are protected.
Although Libya's estimated rate of violent deaths is still far below those of Syria and several Central American nations, it remains significant, ranking eighth globally for 2016. This unenviable situation is symptomatic of the ongoing turmoil and instability facing the country since 2011.
This Report from the Small Arms Survey’s Security Assessment in North Africa (SANA) project examines insecurity, terrorism, and trafficking in Niger.The Sahel hosts multiple conflicts with myriad armed actors destabilizing the entire region. Positioned at the heart of this region, Niger sits at the crossroads of terrorism, trafficking, and conflict.
Lethal violence claimed 560,000 lives in 2016—more than one person every minute of every day of the year.
Beyond the Battlefield: Towards a Better Assessment of the Human Cost of Armed Conflict, makes a case for stepping up efforts to measure and understand the entire range of conflict-related deaths, particularly among forcibly displaced populations.
Tracking Conflict-Related Deaths – A Preliminary Overview of Monitoring Systems aims to contribute to the development of a standardized methodology for tracking the number of people who are killed in armed conflict. This, in the context of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of which Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Target 16.1 specifies to ‘[s]ignificantly reduce all forms of violence and related deaths everywhere’.
In the framework of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Small Arms Survey presents a study of available information on violent deaths, disaggregated by sex. A Gendered Analysis of Violent Deaths assesses variations in the risk of violent death for men and women in conflict and non-conflict settings. It finds that in some high-income countries, more women than men die violently every year, and that intimate partner violence remains a problem even when overall homicide rates decrease.