Continental map of the ongoing conflicts in Africa
This is a list of conflicts in Africa arranged by country, both on the continent and associated islands, including wars between African nations, civil wars, and wars involving non-African nations that took place within Africa. It encompasses pre-colonial wars, colonial wars, wars of independence, secessionist and separatist conflicts, major episodes of national violence (riots, massacres, etc.), and global conflicts in which Africa was a theatre of war.
c. 1203–1243 Dunama Dabbalemi , of the Sayfawa dynasty , mai of the Kanem Empire , declared jihad against the surrounding tribes and initiated an extended period of conquest
c. 1342 – c. 1388 Fall of Kanem
c. 1342 – c. 1352 Sao Resurgence
c. 1376 – c. 1388 Bulala Invasion
1909–1911 Ouaddai War
1915 – 15 November 1917 Massacre des coupes-coupes (in Arabic: Kabkab Massacre, مجزرة كبكب)
c. 1279 BC – 1213 BC Ramesses II's Campaigns in Libya
264 BC – 146 BC Punic Wars
112 BC – 106 BC Jugurthine War
420s Vandal conquer the Roman province
461 - 468 Vandal War (461–468)
June 533 – March 534 Vandalic War
544 Second Moorish uprising and the revolt of Guntharic
647 – 709 Muslim conquest of the Maghreb
Ottoman–Habsburg wars
1711 1711 Karamanli coup
1793 – 1795 Tripolitanian civil war
1797 Action of 16 May 1797
1801 – 05 First Barbary War
1825 Sardinian-Tripolitanian war of 1825
1911 – 43 Libyan resistance movement
1911 – 12 Italo-Turkish War
June 11, 1940 – February 4, 1943 Western Desert Campaign , part of World War II
1 September 1969 1969 Libyan revolution
7 December 1969 1969 Libyan coup attempt
1970 Black Prince conspiracy
21 – 24 July 1977 Egyptian-Libyan War
29 January 1978 – 11 September 1987 Chadian-Libyan conflict
August 19, 1981 Gulf of Sidra incident (1981)
May 8, 1984 Bab al-Azizia siege
March 24, 1986 Action in the Gulf of Sidra (1986)
15 April 1986 1986 United States bombing of Libya
4 January 1989 1989 air battle near Tobruk
22 October 1993 1993 Libyan coup attempt
2002 – ongoing Insurgency in the Maghreb (2002–present)
November 2008 2008 Kufra conflict
2011 – present Libyan crisis
2011 First Libyan Civil War
2011 – 2014 Factional violence in Libya (2011–2014)
2014 – 2020 Second Libyan Civil War
July 13 — August 23, 2014 Battle of Tripoli Airport
October 5, 2014 — April 21, 2016 ISIL takeover of Derna
October 15, 2014 – December 30, 2017 Battle of Benghazi (2014–2017)
January 27, 2015 2015 Corinthia Hotel attack
February 8 — 9, 2015 Fall of Nofaliya (2015)
February 12, 2015 – October 26, 2020 Egyptian intervention in Libya (2015–2020)
13 November 2015 – 30 October 2019 U.S. intervention in Libya (2015–2019)
14 October 2016 – 14 November 2018 Western Libya clashes (2016–2018)
March 3 – 14 2017 Gulf of Sidra Offensive (2017)
January – April 2019 Southern Libya offensive
4 April 2019 – 5 June 2020 Western Libya campaign
5 January 2020 – present 2020 Turkish intervention in Libya
June 6 – 11, 2020 Central Libya offensive
March – December 2022 2022 Tripoli clashes
14 – 15 August 2023 2023 Tripoli clashes
c. 3050 BCE Hor-Aha , the second pharaoh of Egypt, led a campaign against the Nubians
c. 1506 BCE – 1493 BCE During the reign of Thutmose I , the Kingdom of Kerma rebelled against Egyptian rule and Thutmose I traveled up the Nile and fought in the battle, killing the Nubian king.
c. 1282 BCE Seti's military campaigns
c. 1279 BCE – 1213 BCE Remesses II 's campaigns in Nubia
23 BCE The Roman prefect of Egypt invaded the Kingdom of Kush after an initial attack by the queen of Meröe , razing Napata to the ground
c. 300 CE Ezana of Axum launched several military campaigns, destroying the Kingdom of Kush
February 1820 – October 1822 Invasion of Libya and Sudan
The Moorish Wars
534 First Moorish uprising
536 Military mutiny
544 Second Moorish uprising and the revolt of Guntharic
577 Conflict with Moorish kingdom of Garmul
May 18, 1803 – November 20, 1815 Napoleonic Wars
1817–1819 Ndwandwe–Zulu War
1830s–1840s Great Trek
February 17, 1838 Weenen Massacre
January 11, 1879 – July 4, 1879 Anglo-Zulu War
1779–1879 Xhosa Wars
December 20, 1880 – March 23, 1881 First Boer War
October 11, 1899 – May 31, 1902 Second Boer War
July 28, 1914 – November 11, 1918 World War I
September 4, 1939 – May 7, 1945 World War II
1948 – 1994 Internal resistance to apartheid
1966 – 1990 South African Border War
647–709 Muslim conquest of the Maghreb
1075 Almoravid conquest of the Ghana Empire
c. 1230–1250 Early imperial expansion of the Mali Empire
1400 The Sandaki usurpation and second Mossi raid
1433 The Tuareg invasion
c. 1460s Songhai conquered Mema
1810–1818 Mopti Jihad
1848–1864 Initial conquests of El Hadj Umar Tall Jihad
1883–1886 Mandingo Wars
1962 – 1964 Tuareg rebellion (1962–64)
1985 Agacher Strip War
1990 – 1995 Tuareg rebellion (1990–95)
2002 – ongoing Insurgency in the Maghreb (2002–present)
6 February 2007 – ongoing Operation Juniper Shield
2009 – present Boko Haram insurgency
2011 – present Islamist insurgency in the Sahel
January 16, 2012 – present Mali War
January 16, 2012 – April 6, 2012 2012 Tuareg rebellion
March 21, 2012 — April 8, 2012 2012 Malian coup d'état
June 27, 2012 — ongoing Azawad conflict
January 11, 2013 — 15 July 2014 Operation Serval
August 1, 2014 — November 9, 2022 Operation Barkhane
August 18, 2020 2020 Malian coup d'état
May 24, 2021 2021 Malian coup d'état
2006 2006 Tuareg rebellion
2007 – 2009 Tuareg rebellion (2007–2009)
1578–1608 Oyo-Benin War
1804–1808 Fulani War
1835–1836 Fula jihads
1873 – Rafin Jaki Jihad
1877– 1893 Kiriji War ( Ekiti–Parapo War )
1897 Benin Expedition
1967 – 1970 Nigerian Civil War
July 2 – 12, 1967 Operation UNICORD
August 9 – September 20, 1967 Midwest Invasion of 1967
12 September – 4 October 1967 Fall of Enugu
October 4 – 12, 1967 First Invasion of Onitsha
October 17 – 19, 1967 Operation Tiger Claw
January 2 - March 20, 1968 Second Invasion of Onitsha
31 March 1968 Abagana Ambush
March 8 – May 24, 1968 Invasion of Port Harcourt
2 September – 15 October 1968 Operation OAU
15 – 29 November 1968 Operation Hiroshima
October 15, 1968 – April 25, 1969 Siege of Owerri
March 27 – April 22, 1969 Operation Leopard (1969)
December 20 – 24, 1969 Invasion of Umuahia
15 – 16 January 1966 1966 Nigerian coup d'état
28 July – 1 August 1966 1966 Nigerian counter-coup
July 29, 1975 1975 Nigerian coup d'état
February 13, 1976 1976 Nigerian coup attempt
April 1983 Chadian–Nigerian War
31 December 1983 1983 Nigerian coup d'état
August 27, 1985 1985 Nigerian coup d'état
April 22, 1990 1990 Nigerian coup attempt
November 17, 1993 1993 Nigerian coup d'état
1997 – 2003 Warri Crisis
1998 – present Communal conflicts in Nigeria
2003 – present Conflict in the Niger Delta
14 September 2001 – 30 August 2021 War on terror
March 8, 2014 2014 Enugu Government House attack
June 15, 2014 2014 Enugu State Broadcasting Service attack
Chronological list of wars [ edit ]
General:
^ Shoup, John A. (2011-10-31). Ethnic Groups of Africa and the Middle East: An Encyclopedia . ABC-CLIO. p. 266. ISBN 9781598843620 . Archived from the original on 2023-01-10. Retrieved 2020-10-02 . The kingdom was able to last until 1901, when the French conquered it as part of their conquest of the Niger River/Sahara region
^ Katagiri, Noriyuki (2015). Adapting to Win: How Insurgents Fight and Defeat Foreign States in War . University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 197. ISBN 9780812246414 . Archived from the original on 2023-01-10. Retrieved 2020-10-02 .
^ "Britain Sokoto Conquest 1903" . www.onwar.com . Retrieved 2019-06-19 .
^ a b "COW War List" . correlatesofwar.org . Correlates of War. Retrieved 6 September 2019 .[permanent dead link ]
^ Henige, David (1979). History in Africa . African Studies Association. p. 54. Archived from the original on 2023-01-10. Retrieved 2020-10-02 . By the time Portuguese military expeditions reached Kasanje in 1910, intent on effective occupation and "pacification," only regional chieftains, some still claiming the kinguri title, remained to resist their advance. Portuguese military commanders seized and destroyed the regalia of the kinguri position in 1912, thereby ending the history of the state by burning the symbols in which had inhered the power of its kings.
^ St John, Ronald Bruce (4 June 2014). Historical Dictionary of Libya . Rowman & Littlefield. p. 316. ISBN 9780810878761 . Archived from the original on 10 January 2023. Retrieved 2 October 2020 .
^ Association, Cheke Cultural Writers (1994). The history and cultural life of the Mbunda speaking peoples . The Association. p. 101. ISBN 9789982030069 . Archived from the original on 2023-01-10. Retrieved 2020-10-02 .
^ Abegaz, Berhanu (2018-06-09). A Tributary Model of State Formation: Ethiopia, 1600-2015 . Springer. p. 48. ISBN 9783319757803 . Archived from the original on 2023-01-10. Retrieved 2020-10-02 .
^ Vos, Jelmer (2015). Kongo in the Age of Empire, 1860–1913: The Breakdown of a Moral Order . University of Wisconsin Pres. p. 350. ISBN 9780299306243 . Archived from the original on 2023-01-10. Retrieved 2020-10-02 .
^ Ahmida, Ali Abdullatif (2002). The making of modern Libya . Albany, New York: SUNY Press. pp. 126–131. ISBN 978-1-4384-2891-8 . Archived from the original on 10 January 2023. Retrieved 12 June 2011 .
Ahram, Ariel I. War and Conflict in the Middle East and North Africa (John Wiley & Sons, 2020).
Christman, Audrey Mona. Civil wars in Africa: Roots and resolution (McGill-Queen's Press-MQUP, 1999).
Kalu, Kelechi A. ed. Civil Wars in Africa (2022) excerpt
Sidorova, Galina, and Eliza Lyubenova. "Contemporary Wars in Africa or 21st Century Competition for Power." Journal of Asian and African Studies (2020): 0021909620965609.
Williams, Paul D. War and conflict in Africa (John Wiley & Sons, 2016).
Lists of wars involving African countries
Sovereign states States with limited recognition
Dependencies and other territories
Sovereign states States with limited recognition
Dependencies and other territories
1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s Frozen conflicts Foreign policy Ideologies
Organizations Propaganda
Technological competition Historians Espionage and intelligence See also
Africa
Americas
Asia
East Central South South- east West
Europe
1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s This list includes World War I and later conflicts (after 1914) of at least 100 fatalities each Prolonged conflicts are listed in the decade when initiated; ongoing conflicts are marked italic, and conflicts with +100,000 killed with bold.