A new UN report warns that civilians continue to bear the overwhelming burden of modern warfare, with explosive weapons in populated areas remaining a leading cause of death, injury and destruction, drawing on AOAV data to illustrate the scale of the crisis.

New data show the UK has trained nearly 1,900 military personnel from over 100 countries, including 14 on its own human-rights watchlist, raising concerns about oversight, transparency and the risk of bolstering abusive security forces.

Britain’s military training missions in Africa aim to promote stability and rights, but in practice they often entangle the UK with fragile regimes, limited oversight and contested outcomes.

On Saturday 14th October 2017, at a busy intersection in the Hodan district of the Somali capital of Mogadishu, a truck bomb exploded, killing at least 587 people and injuring hundreds more, and permanently changing the lives of thousands. 

In June 2024, Action on Armed Violence recorded 5,449 deaths and injuries from 709 incidents of explosive violence around the world, as reported in English-language media. Civilians accounted for 91% (4,938) of the deaths and injuries recorded.

On Saturday 29th June, multiple suicide bombings in the town of Gwoza, in Nigeria’s northeastern Borno state, resulted in at least 32 deaths and at least 100 injuries, 26 of whom remain hospitalised.

At least 85 civilians were killed and 66 injured in a Nigerian air strike on Tudun Biri village.

From 13 to 19 October 2023, AOAV has recorded 217 incidents of explosive violence around the world, and 1,619 civilian casualties.

Recent data from Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) coupled with records from Care4Calais shed light on the acute dangers that many asylum seekers coming to the UK face in their homelands.

The UK’s Special Forces have been reported on operations in almost twenty countries in just over 10 years. Here we outline why this might be concern.

Data on costs associated with Defence Loan Service Personnel to 85 countries, including human rights priority nations, reveal global cost of up to £40m in 2022.

This section outlines the extent of UKSF’s operations in Nigeria.