Crisis Prevention and Recovery

The human impact of war: life expectancy in selected countries

Countries Years Estimate of total war deaths Battle deaths Battle deaths as a % of total war deaths Sudan (Anya Nya rebellion) 1963–1973 250,000–750,000 20,000 3–8% Nigeria (Biafra rebellion) 1967–1970 500,000– 2 million 75,000 4–15% Angola 1975–2002 1.5 million 160,475 11% Ethiopia (not including Eritrean insurgency) 1976–1991 1–2 million 16,000 <2% Mozambique 1976–1992 500,000–1 million 145,400 15–29% Somalia 1981–1996 250,000–350,000 66,750 19–27% Sudan 1983–2002 2 million 55,000 3% Liberia 1989–1996 150,000–200,000 23,500 12–16% Democratic Republic of the Congo 1998–2001 2.5 million 145,000 6%

Source: Data from UNICEF, 2008, statistical tables.                            Source: Lacina and Gleditsch, 2004, cited in Human Security Centre, 2005.

                                      
In addition to direct ‘battle deaths’, many contemporary armed conflicts also result in large numbers of indirect deaths due to famine, disease and lack of health services, sometimes years after the end of conflict. As a result, conflict-affected countries continue to face very low life expectancy at birth even by Least Developed Countries' standards. In some cases it stalled an estimated 45 years (in Rwanda and Liberia) or even decreased (in Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of Congo) between 1990 and 2006 while it increased by 20 percent in developing countries on average over the same period.