A recent report from the African Union has detailed forced cannibalism and gang rape
in the South Sudanese Civil War.
Reportedly, tens of thousands of people have been killed in this conflict alone.
But it is only one of roughly twenty-five active African conflicts.
So we wanted to know, what are the biggest ongoing wars in Africa?
Well, the largest source of casualties in recent years has been the Boko Haram insurgency.
They are an Islamic extremist terrorist group, which has killed an estimated 15 to 20,000
people since 2009.
They started in Nigeria, but spread to Chad, Cameroon, and Niger.
The source of the conflict was Boko Haram’s belief that Nigeria’s government was non-Islamic
and Western leaning.
It has been described as a version of ISIS in Africa, a group Boko Haram already has
close ties with.
They achieved worldwide notoriety after kidnapping 300 schoolgirls in 2014.
But they’ve also targeted Christians and Westerners, and set off countless bomb attacks.
In 2015 they lost considerable territory and control, pushed back by a regional coalition
of neighboring countries.
Thankfully, Boko Haram appears to be near defeat.
The next largest conflict is the Somali Civil War, which has been ongoing since 1991.
In total, they’ve seen up to half a million casualties as multiple warlords battled for
control of the country.
Until 2012, there was no permanent, central government, and even today, the country is
massively unstable.
The lack of government led to Somalia acting as a home base for a number of terrorist groups,
including Al-Qaeda (al-KY-duh) affiliates.
There has also been a rampant increase in piracy.
Drought and famine, coupled with wartime anarchy, have been responsible for many deaths in the
region.
Another region of ongoing conflict is Darfur in Sudan.
Since 2003, anti-government rebel groups attempted a coup d’etat, ostensibly to protect the
country’s non-Arab minority.
In response, the Sudanese government initiated a genocide against its non-Arabic residents.
The UN has estimated the conflict has caused up to 300,000 deaths, and nearly 3 million
displaced people, half of them, children.
Subsequent ceasefire attempts have allegedly been breached by the Sudanese army.
In Libya, a number of rival militant groups have been fighting for control of the country
in the Second Libyan Civil War.
This is following a power vacuum caused by the death of Libya’s dictator, Muammar Gaddafi,
in 2011.
The current groups attempting to gain power include an internationally recognized, elected
government, called the Tobruk (toe-BROOK) government.
There is also an Islamist group, called the “Shura Council of Benghazi Revolutionaries”,
which is aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood.
Also in the mix is ISIS, which controls a small amount of territory in the north.
And finally there are a number of competing rebel groups.
This war has contributed to more than 4,000 deaths in the past two years alone.
Similar conflicts and insurgencies are still ongoing in Egypt, the Central African Republic,
the Congo, Ethiopia, Algeria, Tunisia, Burundi, and Mali.
A number of regional communal clashes, as well as politically, religiously, and ethnically
based wars have kept much of Africa extremely unstable.
These wars run contrary to the mission of the African Union, which aims for unity among
African nations.
How important is the African Union?
You can learn more in this video.
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