African Peace and Conflict Facts - Stand With Africa. A Campaign of Hope

African Peace and Conflict Facts
Bread for the World Institute: 2002 & 2003 Hunger Report (http://www.bread.org)

2003 Report:

In Liberia, large numbers of people continue to become internally displaced as they flee areas of conflict in their country.

Some 200,000 people are receiving emergency food assistance because of Liberia’s instability after its decade-long civil war.

Sierra Leone’s civil war ended in 2001, and successful national elections were held in 2002. The small country continues to make progress as reconstruction and peace begin to take hold. With more than half its population displaced during the civil war and still suffering from some of the most brutal human rights violations ever, Sierra Leone’s economic and psychosocial recovery still has a long way to go.

For the past three years, armies from six nations have become involved in the Congo conflict, also dubbed Africa’s World War.

Rwanda and Burundi are encumbered in an ongoing conflict between Hutu and Tutsi political and ethnic groups.

Uganda … has suffered from a 16-year civil conflict between the government of Uganda and a rebel group known as the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).

In both Sudan and Somalia, seeds of peace are beginning to take root despite outbreaks of fighting between various rebel forces and government troops.

In Sudan, a 19-year civil war between northern government troops and southern rebels has claimed nearly 2 million lives and displaced more than 4 million people within the country. In 2002 the rebel leaders of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement participated in peace talks with representatives of the government of Sudan. These talks were facilitated by a number of international mediators.

In Somalia, signs of war weariness also have emerged. Warlords have wreaked havoc since 1990, and the fighting led to a famine killing 200,000 Somalis. In 2001 and 2002, talks between Somali warlords produced some peace in this fractured nation.

2002 Report:

In 2001 civil conflict and war affected 16 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Internal conflicts interrupted progress in countries, such as Uganda, that have achieved a measure of food security in recent years.

Brutal civil wars in the 1990s in Liberia and Sierra Leone led to the exodus of more than 1 million refugees to Ivory Coast and Guinea. In addition, between 1 million and 2 million people were displaced within Liberia and Sierra Leone. Conflict erupted in 36 regions of Nigeria in 2001. Some of these conflicts were clashes over oil rights in the Nigerian Delta; others resulted from the imposition of Islamic law in areas where Muslims and Christians live in proximity.