Glossary

An armed group is considered active when it is involved in at least one event in a given territory, within a specific time period. 

E.g. “The Pakistani Taliban are primarily active in northwest Pakistan bordering Afghanistan, and rarely target security forces in the capital city.” Regional Overview: South Asia and Afghanistan | 15-21 January 2022 

Actor refers to a party involved in an event. ACLED recognizes a range of actors that are grouped into eight categories: state forces, rebel groups, political militias, identity militias, rioters, protesters, civilians, and external/other forces (e.g. UN missions). In some cases, an actor’s classification can change over time and depending on context, e.g. from rebel group to state forces.

Source: ACLED Actors and Interactions 

E.g. “The effective return of FAMa could alter the already delicate balance of power between armed non-state actors and trigger further abuses and revenge attacks.” Actor Profile: Dan Na Ambassagou 

Usage tip: When conducting analysis, if grouping actors in a particular way, remember that there must be a clear rationale for doing so. In some cases, this may need an explanatory footnote. Spelling of actor names in analysis should be based on the names in the Events Tool.

Armed interactions refers to any form of violent interaction involving two (or more) opposing armed groups. This grouping can be used to widen the scope of armed clashes to also include unidirectional events, such as air/drone strikes. 

E.g. “Ceasefire violations in Azerbaijan and Armenia continued at similar levels to weeks prior, with 46 armed interactions along the Artsakh-Azerbaijan Line of Contact and 17 armed interactions along the Armenia-Azerbaijan line of contact.” Regional Overview: Central Asia and the Caucasus 24-30 November 2019

Usage tip: Armed interactions can be isolated by using the actor filters in the Data Export Tool or a calculated field in Tableau to pull out activity involving these two opposing actors. If using the latter method, ensure that events involving civilians as Actor 2 or protest event types or protest event types are not included. Consult with the analysis team for further guidance.

ACLED distinguishes between fatalities and casualties. While fatalities specifically refer to deaths, casualties may refer to injuries or fatalities; as such, any reference to casualties in ACLED analysis is qualitative and not based on the dataset.

Source: Fatalities: Uses and limitations of ACLED data

E.g. “The shift of French forces’ focus to JNIM in October 2020 inflicted significant casualties on the group, yet it continues to wage a multi-front war and maintain a high operational tempo.” Sahel 2021: Communal Wars, Broken Ceasefires, and Shifting Frontlines 

Usage tip: Due to the ambiguity of the term, avoid using casualties in analysis pieces in favor of more specific terms, such as injuries or fatalities, whenever possible.

Civilians refers to actors that are unarmed and do not use violence themselves. They can be characterized as vulnerable victims of violent acts who do not actively choose to be involved in an event.

Individuals participating in protest events (non-violent and non-destructive demonstrations) are referred to as protesters. However, when excessive force targets protesters, they are treated as civilians in ACLED analysis (i.e. included in the violence targeting civilians category). 

Source: ACLED Codebook 

E.g. “Of identified actors, state forces continued to pose the greatest threat to civilians last year, responsible for 16% of civilian targeting and 14% of civilian fatalities.” ACLED 2021: The Year in Review 

Deadliness represents the number of reported fatalities, which can be aggregated over a period of time or series of events (e.g. campaign, conflict). As such, deadliest means the most reported fatalities.  

E.g. “The recent massacre in Tole kebele in West Wollega is the deadliest attack against ethnic Amhara civilians in Oromia, and the second deadliest in the country.”

EPO Monthly: June 2022 - Ethiopia Peace Observatory 

Usage tip: Note that deadliness differs from lethality.  

Demonstration events is an umbrella term for all protest events and riot events – excluding mob violence events (see visual above). 

E.g. “Between 24 May and 22 August, ACLED records more than 10,600 demonstration events across the country. Over 10,100 of these — or nearly 95% — involve peaceful protesters.” Demonstrations and Political Violence in America: New Data for Summer 2020 

Usage tip: When specifically referencing ACLED data on demonstration activity use “demonstration events,” “protest events,’ and “riot events” rather than simply “demonstrations,” “protests,” or “riots,” as ACLED specifically collects data on the former. After reference to the data, is it acceptable to use “demonstrations,” “protests,” and “riots.” 

Demonstrators is a catchall for individuals engaging in demonstration activity, whether violent demonstrations or non-violent protests. The term protesters is used exclusively for participants of non-violent protest events. 

In cases outlined in the US Methodology, participants in demonstrations can be characterized as armed demonstrators.

Violent demonstrations refers to the sub-event type of the same name, which captures violent and/or destructive activity. Violent demonstrations are not considered political violence. 

E.g. “Of the violent demonstrations that ACLED records, the majority involved clashes between farmers and police forces after farmers blocked roads or were prevented from marching and demonstrating.” An Unlikely Success: Demonstrations Against Farm Laws in India 

Usage tip: Users can identify violent demonstrations with only property destruction by filtering for empty Actor 2, except for cases where police intervene in property destruction e.g. by making arrests.

Destructive demonstrations (also referred to as destructive events, or simply, “destructive”) is used descriptively to refer to vandalism (e.g. property destruction); looting; road-blocking using barricades, burning tires, or other material; or other types of violent and/or destructive behavior, in the context of a demonstration event. Destructive events are considered violent demonstrations and, therefore, this term can be used to refer to a specific group of violent demonstration events. 

E.g. “Contrary to claims that the presence of guns in public spaces makes people safer, demonstrations involving at least one armed individual tend to be violent or destructive 16% of the time.” Armed Assembly: Guns, Demonstrations, and Political Violence in America 

A counter-demonstration refers to an event where one group of demonstrators is present at another demonstration, in opposition to that demonstration. 

E.g. “Counter-demonstrations at abortion-related events are increasing. Abortion-related counter-demonstrations rose by 131% in 2021 relative to 2020.” Abortion-Related Demonstrations in the United States: Shifting Trends and the Potential for Violence

Usage tip: Events are also coded as counter-demonstrations in some cases where two separate groups host their own demonstrations independently but in opposition to each other. 

Anti-(x) demonstration or pro-(x) demonstration are terms used to refer to demonstration events which are directly related to expressing opposition or support of a specific policy, practice, issue, or entity. 

E.g. “While the government has engaged in efforts to address anti-government demonstration movements in France’s overseas territories, unresolved social, economic, and political issues could lead to further outbreaks of violence.” Unrest in French Overseas Territories and Corsica: Analysis of Violent Demonstration Trends From 2020 to Early 2022 

Usage tip: Analysis based on such a grouping of demonstration events should only occur when this information has been systematically coded in the dataset as tags. Consult the context-specific methodologies when using these groupings in analysis. Exceptions to this rule require further consultation with the analysis team. 

The term disorder is used to refer collectively to all events that fall within the political violence and demonstrations categories (see visual above). This effectively includes all events in the ACLED dataset, minus strategic developments.

Note: Disorder is not synonymous with unrest. 

Source: ACLED 2021: The Year in Review 

E.g. “Demonstrations account for a third of all disorder events recorded by ACLED in Colombia in 2019.” Disorder in Latin America: 10 Crises in 2019 

Usage tip: Strategic developments should not be used in quantitative analysis or visualized alongside other systematically coded ACLED event types, due to their more subjective nature.

In ACLED analysis, the use of the term fatalities always refers to reported fatalities recorded in the dataset, per the FAQs: ACLED Fatality Methodology. Note that this term differs from casualties.

E.g. “ACLED has recorded nearly 7,700 violent events targeting civilians from 1 January 2019 to 18 May 2019, resulting in over 8,200 reported fatalities.” Fact Sheet: Civilians in Conflict 

Gang refers to criminal groups that are organized, have leadership, and whose objective is not overtly political but economic in nature. For more, see Gang Violence: Concepts, benchmarks, and coding rules.

E.g. “Fighting between gangs over control of strategic neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince intensified, while the violence also expanded to nearby areas in the northeast of Ouest department.” 10 Conflicts to Worry About in 2022: Haiti | Mid-Year Update - ACLED 

Usage Tip: Gang categories (per the Event Tool) include Gang, Gang/Cartel, and Gang/Cartel-Transnational.

When used in ACLED analysis, gang violence is used to describe violence committed by criminal groups without an overt political agenda. It is used only in certain contexts which have been determined to meet the parameters for inclusion based on the country-context, as outlined in the Gang Violence: Concepts, benchmarks, and coding rules. It includes political violence events involving gang actors, as well as the Unidentified Armed Group actor depending on the country-context.

E.g. “Gang violence significantly affects civilians in Brazil. ACLED records more than 1,400 attacks targeting civilians perpetrated by unidentified gangs and/or police militia groups in 2019 alone…” Disorder in Latin America: 10 Crises in 2019 

Insurgency refers descriptively to violent activity carried out by an organized, armed, non-state group or groups internally against a governing authority, often to contest control over a territorial area. Use of the term is highly context-specific, and the aims, ideology, intensity, size, and geographic scope of insurgencies will vary.

E.g. “It is often assumed that Niger is less overrun by armed groups than its neighbors Mali and Burkina Faso. However, the country faces several challenges. These include the Boko Haram insurgency in the Lake Chad Basin, the Sahelian insurgency led by ISGS in northern Tillaberi, and JNIM activity in southwestern Tillaberi.” Sahel 2021: Communal Wars, Broken Ceasefires, and Shifting Frontlines

Usage tip: Given that “insurgency” is a descriptive term and not based on the dataset, remember that it is context-specific. 

Lethality refers to the rate of deadliness: fatalities divided by events. This term can only be used to contextualize fatalities in comparison to other events. If referring to just one event, use deadliness.

E.g. “While armed clashes between conflict parties remained at relatively high levels in April and May 2022, their lethality decreased considerably. The lethality of armed clashes was five times lower during the first two months of the truce than during the two months prior.” The UN-Mediated Truce in Yemen: Impacts of the First Two Months 

Militants refers descriptively to members of an armed group most often undertaking an insurgency. Depending on the context, the term will be accompanied by an affiliation (e.g. IS militants, JNIM-affiliated militants, or jihadist militants). Militants may also be referred to as fighters or members. 

E.g. “Mali’s shift away from traditional security partners also coincided with a move by the Malian military (FAMa) to scale up operations against Islamist militants.” Wagner Group Operations in Africa: Civilian Targeting Trends in the Central African Republic and Mali 

The ACLED dataset categorizes two types of militias: political militias and identity militias. 

Political militias refers to violent actors that are often created for a specific purpose or during a specific time period for the furtherance of a political purpose by violence (e.g. the pro-government Janjaweed militia in Sudan). 

Identity militias refers to armed and violent groups organized around a collective, common feature including community, ethnicity, region, religion, or, in exceptional cases, livelihood. Therefore, identity militias include those reported as tribal, clan, communal, ethnic, local, community, religious, and livelihood militias. 

Source: ACLED Actors and Interactions 

E.g. “The number of events perpetrated by communal militias has also increased, by nearly 50%.” A Great and Sudden Change: The Global Political Violence Landscape Before and After the COVID-19 Pandemic 

Where applicable, perpetrator describes the individual or actor responsible for the action in violent events. Using the data to assign a perpetrator is only done for unidirectional violent events, such as violence targeting civilians or explosions/remote violence events. This includes the following sub-event types: attack, sexual violence, abduction/forced disappearance, chemical weapon, air/drone strike, suicide bomb, shelling/artillery/missile attack, and remote explosives/landmine/IED. 

In cases of two-sided violent events, such as battles, ACLED data cannot be used consistently to assign a perpetrator (see the Quick Guide to ACLED Data).

E.g. “The second most common perpetrators of violence targeting civilians in Afghanistan since the fall of Kabul are unidentified armed groups.” Tracking Disorder During Taliban Rule in Afghanistan: A Joint ACLED and APW Report 

Usage tip: The actor listed in the Actor 1 column does not always denote the perpetrator. This column is only used to identify perpetrators in unidirectional events, with the exception of excessive force against protesters. In certain two-sided violent events, details in the Notes may enable the identification of a potential perpetrator of an action in an event, but remember that this information can be biased.

Political violence is defined as the use of force by a group with a political purpose or motivation. In analysis, this is a category used to refer collectively to ACLED’s violence against civilians, battles, explosions/remote violence event types, as well as the excessive force against protesters and mob violence sub-event types. 

Sources: ACLED Codebook 

E.g. “The most salient change in political violence patterns induced by the truce is the drastic decrease in air and drone strike events.” The UN-Mediated Truce in Yemen: Impacts of the First Two Months 

Political violence targeting women (PVTW) captures political violence in which women or girls are specifically targeted — not all cases in which women or girls are affected or impacted by political violence. This means that PVTW does not capture the entirety of violence faced by women and girls, as it is not a gender disaggregation of all political violence. Rather, it specifically captures cases in which a woman’s gender is the salient identity for which she is targeted.

Sources: Political Violence Targeting Women FAQs; Violence Targeting Women in Politics: Trends in Targets, Types, and Perpetrators of Political Violence; Research Hub: Political Violence Targeting Women   

E.g. “The strict interpretation of Islamic Law adopted by the Taliban heightens the risk of political violence targeting women and girls.” Tracking Disorder During Taliban Rule in Afghanistan: A Joint ACLED and APW Report 

Usage tip: Refer to the ACLED Political Violence Targeting Women FAQs document for more on the scope and key features of PVTW. 

Recorded refers to all events that have been coded as part of the ACLED dataset. Thus, patterns of activity derived from these data are recorded by ACLED, not reported.

When referring to the dataset, the term reported is only used in reference to fatalities – fatalities are always referred to as reported. External to the dataset, reported can also be used to refer to supporting information from outside sources.

E.g. “The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) currently records more than 100,000 reported fatalities in Yemen since 2015, including over 12,000 civilians killed in direct attacks.” Over 100,000 Reported Killed in Yemen War 

Usage Tip: As ACLED records events in real time, remember to default to the present tense – records – when referring to the data, e.g. ACLED records a 50% increase in demonstration events in 2020 (not recorded).

The term shelling can be used as an umbrella term to describe bombing using a long-range military or missile system, referring to the shelling/artillery/missile attack sub-event type. When this sub-event type is used in analysis, it should be reworded for readability to “shelling, artillery, and missile attack” or just “shelling.” However, “missile” and “artillery” can be used separately if appropriate for the specific event described. 

Other terms to describe shelling/artillery/missile attacks can be used when appropriate for the specific context, e.g. cross-border exchange of rockets between Israel and Palestine, or IS rockets in Afghanistan.

E.g. “Russian forces continued offensive operations in the Donetsk region, primarily in the direction of Bakhmut, which suffered from heavy shelling (Hromadske, 14 July 2022; Suspilne Media, 15 July 2022).” Regional Overview: Europe, Caucasus, and Central Asia 9-15 July 2022 

E.g. “While air and drone strike events decreased, the truce has seen a significant increase in shelling, artillery, and missile attack events, which increased by 160% compared to the two months prior and by 106% compared to the same period last year.” The UN-Mediated Truce in Yemen: Impacts of the First Two Months 

The term unrest can be used descriptively in characterizing trends, most often in reference to recorded demonstration activity, but can also include mob violence if it occurs as a part of a broader trend. The term can be used in combination with other qualifiers (e.g. significant, sustained, renewed, social, civil).

Note: Unrest is not synonymous with disorder.

E.g. “Notably, the spatial distribution of demonstrations reveals the nationwide character of the unrest.” A New Season of Unrest in Lebanon 

Violence targeting civilians is a category that encompasses all events of political violence that target civilians. This includes a broader scope than the violence against civilians event type (sexual violence, attack, and abduction/forced disappearance sub-event types). It is inclusive of the aforementioned sub-event types, as well as the explosions/remote violence event type, the excessive force against protesters, and the mob violence sub-event types involving civilians or protesters. Therefore, violence targeting civilians is preferred in analysis because it reflects the widest scope of the violence faced by civilians recorded in the dataset.

Civilian targeting is an alternate way to refer to violence targeting civilians.

E.g. “Most notably, former government officials and security forces have been targeted, with nearly 30% of Taliban violence targeting civilians directed towards such individuals since 15 August 2021.” Tracking Disorder During Taliban Rule in Afghanistan: A Joint ACLED and APW Report