INTERACTIONS AND RESPECTIVE FATALITIES
GRAPH 2: Violent interactions and fatalities
Political violence takes multiple forms with several types of groups interacting with each other. We have chosen the ten most common types found across Africa and display their respective proportion in event count and fatality counts. From this analysis, Government-Rebel battles comprise over 30% of the total events, but are responsible for 45% of all reported fatalities.
Contrary to assumptions that civilians bear the brunt of political violence across Africa, reported fatality levels for ‘Violence Against Civilians’ by distinct actors including militias and rebels suggest that they are responsible for fewer fatalities than those involving active combatants. However, this may also reflect poorly reported fatality information, common in unstable states, including an under-reporting of civilian casualties and an over-reporting of combatant fatalities by opposing parties.
Outside of Government-Rebel interactions, there is no correlation between the frequency of events and the total number of fatalities in which it results.
