War and Intimate Partner Violence in Africa

Abstract

This paper evaluates the impacts of armed conflict on intimate partner violence against women in Africa. Exploiting both spatial and temporal variations in the number of battles proxying for armed conflict intensity, we find that women residing in conflict-affected areas are prone to suffering intimate partner violence. In particular, a 1SD increase in the number of battles (equivalent to the increase by 4.8 battles) raises the composite indices of less severe violence, more severe violence, emotional abuse, and sexual abuse against women by 8.74%, 10.34%, 10.64%, and 7.14% relative to the sample averages, respectively. Given the long-term consequences of intimate partner violence, our findings call for expanding efforts in the prevention and mitigation of armed conflict.