CE-DAT - Centre for research on the epidemiology of disasters

Armed conflicts are defined as political conflicts in which armed combat involves the armed forces of at least one state or one or more armed factions seeking to gain control of all or part of the state, and in which at least 1,000 people have been killed by the fighting during the course of the conflict. Globally, the number of armed conflicts has been decreasing since 1995, when it peaked at 44 recorded civil wars. In 2003 there were 37 active conflicts in the world. More than 80 percent of these conflicts were in Asia and Africa.

Prepared by: Debarati Guha-Sapir, Willem Gijsbert van Panhuis, Olivier Degomme, Vicente Teran
Published in: Epidemiologic Reviews • February 2005 ; 27:1 •

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