I think your definition of armed conflict is more expansive than mine, because my research[1][2] says 16 African countries have ongoing countries. This works out to just under 30%. Perhaps you were counting belligerent nations rather than countries where conflicts occur as I was. If I were to calculate by actual geographic area,my guess is I would be well under 7% of inhabited regions, and < 1% of African population directly affected.
I too was guilty of generalization as we when I asked about countries involved because the conflicts are highly localized, it's never the entire country that's a warzone (excepting Somalia).
Bonus 2-part question:A) What is the current total number of African warlords? [Thanks Hollywood] B) what is the probability that a random African resides in an area controlled by a warlord?
> my guess is ... < 1% of African population directly affected
I have done some research into the proportion of the population affected. According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), over 1% of the population of Africa is a "person of concern" originating from just five of the ongoing conflicts in Africa: Sudan, South Sudan, Nigeria, DRC, and Somalia. All in all, it appears that about 1.6% of the population of Africa is a "person of concern" of the UNHCR. The majority of this population is in the class "internally displaced persons (IDPs) protected/assisted by UNHCR, including people in IDP-like situations".
I both gave my definition of conflict (100 deaths/year) and a list of the countries involved, so it should be trivial to compare details. The difference is likely due to Kenya (which had more than 100 deaths in 2016 related to Somalia), Burkina Faso and Tunisia (which had a combined ~100 related to the insurgency in Algeria/the Maghreb), and/or Mozambique (which had over 100 related to RENAMO).
I do think it'd be interesting to estimate the percent of the population affected.
I too was guilty of generalization as we when I asked about countries involved because the conflicts are highly localized, it's never the entire country that's a warzone (excepting Somalia).
Bonus 2-part question:A) What is the current total number of African warlords? [Thanks Hollywood] B) what is the probability that a random African resides in an area controlled by a warlord?
1. http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/the-wars-ravaging-...
2. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_conflicts_in_Africa