Armed Violence Observatory in Africa

The opening line of the Geneva Declaration on Armed Violence and Development is : “Armed violence destroys lives and livelihoods, breeds insecurity, fear and terror, and has a profoundly negative impact on human development”. De facto, it acknowledges the harmful interrelation between armed violence and development. Whereas the armed conflict frequency curve has bent over the past years, the number of people killed has significantly increased.  Each year, more than 500.000 people die because of armed conflicts but only one out of ten perishes because of conflicts or terrorist activities. Armed violence fuels and is fuelled by transnational crime, including traffics in all their forms. Analysing the different forms of armed violence is crucial to improve the understanding of the existing mechanisms; it can help preventing and reducing armed violence. In the framework of the “ Amélioration de la sécurité humaine, prévention des conflits et renforcement de l’État de droit “ (Enhancing the human security, preventing conflicts and strengthening the constitutional state) project, GRIP undertakes several activities, among which are research on the main non-state armed groups in countries of the Sahelian region and quarterly monitoring of the insecurity in West Africa. Besides,GRIP is interested in the rise of piracy in the Gulf of Guinea and in the multiple forms of transnational traffics in the sub-region.