racled is an R package to access from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) data.
Install racled
You can install the development version from GitLab using the remotes R package:
remotes::install_gitlab("dickoa/racled")racled: A quick tutorial
The racled package requires you to set your API access key and specify asssociated email. In order to get your access key, you’ll need to register by visiting:
https://developer.acleddata.com/
With your credential, the easiest way to setup racled is to to store them in your .Renviron file which is automatically read by R on startup.
You can either edit directly the .Renviron file or access it by calling usethis::edit_r_environ() (assuming you have the usethis package installed) and entering:
Or use directly the racled_setup function
racled_setup(key = "****************1234",
email = "you@youremail.com")We can now query and read conflict data from Mali, it returns a data.frame
library(racled)
mali_conflicts <- read_acled("mali")
str(mali_conflicts)
## 'data.frame': 5177 obs. of 31 variables:
## $ data_id : int 8366858 8366853 8366854 8366855 8366859 8366452 8366849 8366885 8366889 8366447 ...
## $ iso : int 466 466 466 466 466 466 466 466 466 466 ...
## $ event_id_cnty : chr "MLI5307" "MLI5305" "MLI5302" "MLI5303" ...
## $ event_id_no_cnty: int 5307 5305 5302 5303 5306 5304 5296 5294 5299 5295 ...
## $ event_date : chr "2021-07-01" "2021-06-30" "2021-06-30" "2021-06-30" ...
## $ year : int 2021 2021 2021 2021 2021 2021 2021 2021 2021 2021 ...
## $ time_precision : int 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ...
## $ event_type : chr "Battles" "Strategic developments" "Violence against civilians" "Strategic developments" ...
## $ sub_event_type : chr "Armed clash" "Looting/property destruction" "Attack" "Looting/property destruction" ...
## $ actor1 : chr "Katiba Macina" "Islamic State (West Africa) - Greater Sahara Faction" "Al Mourabitoune Battalion" "Unidentified Armed Group (Mali)" ...
## $ assoc_actor_1 : chr "JNIM: Group for Support of Islam and Muslims" "" "JNIM: Group for Support of Islam and Muslims" "" ...
## $ inter1 : int 2 2 2 3 2 2 3 6 2 2 ...
## $ actor2 : chr "Dozo Communal Militia (Mali)" "Civilians (Mali)" "Civilians (Mali)" "Civilians (Mali)" ...
## $ assoc_actor_2 : chr "" "" "MINUSMA: United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (2020-); Labour Group (Mali)" "MINUSMA: United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (2020-); Labour Group (Mali)" ...
## $ inter2 : int 4 7 7 7 7 1 2 0 7 7 ...
## $ interaction : int 24 27 27 37 27 12 23 60 27 27 ...
## $ region : chr "Western Africa" "Western Africa" "Western Africa" "Western Africa" ...
## $ country : chr "Mali" "Mali" "Mali" "Mali" ...
## $ admin1 : chr "Mopti" "Gao" "Gao" "Gao" ...
## $ admin2 : chr "Djenne" "Gao" "Bourem" "Ansongo" ...
## $ admin3 : chr "Femaye" "Anchawadi" "Tarkint" "Bara" ...
## $ location : chr "Koumaga" "In Aoutel" "Almoustarat" "Bara" ...
## $ latitude : num 14 16.1 17.4 15.8 13.6 ...
## $ longitude : num -4.399 0.753 0.09 0.325 -3.709 ...
## $ geo_precision : int 1 1 2 2 1 1 1 1 2 1 ...
## $ source : chr "Signal" "Signal" "Signal" "Signal" ...
## $ source_scale : chr "New media" "New media" "New media" "New media" ...
## $ notes : chr "On 1 July 2021, Katiba Macina (JNIM) militants attacked the village of Koumaga-Marka [Koumaga] (Djenne, Mopti)."| __truncated__ "Looting: On 30 June 2021, ISWAP (Greater Sahara) militants seized ruminants in Atolate [In Aoutel] (Gao, Gao)." "On 30 June 2021, suspected Al-Mourabitoune (JNIM) militants opened fire against a MINUSMA logistics convoy near"| __truncated__ "Looting: On 30 June 2021, unknown gunmen pillaged and damaged a truck transporting food supplies for MINUSMA ne"| __truncated__ ...
## $ fatalities : int 0 0 1 0 0 2 2 0 0 0 ...
## $ timestamp : int 1625510721 1625510721 1625510721 1625510721 1625510721 1625510720 1625510721 1625510721 1625510721 1625510720 ...
## $ iso3 : chr "MLI" "MLI" "MLI" "MLI" ...Acknowledgements
This project makes use of data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED). The data is invaluable for providing real-time information on political violence and protests, which enhances the functionality and reliability of the racled package. We would like to extend our gratitude to the ACLED team for their efforts in collecting and maintaining this data. Please note that the ACLED data is used in accordance with their terms of service. ACLED API User Guide for more details on how to interact with their API.