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. Thanks

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