Action on Armed Violence

Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) aims to lessen the effects of armed violence by researching and monitoring its causes and consequences. Our primary focus is on the impact of explosive weapons that can cause widespread damage in populated areas. Since October 2010, we have been conducting a global assessment of explosive violence. Our efforts include examining various case studies related to the harm caused by explosive weapons. This includes the lasting effects in countries like Sri Lanka, Lebanon, and Syria, as well as NATO air strikes, attacks using improvised explosive devices by extremist groups, and the wide-reaching impact of explosive weapons in Ukraine, Jordan, and Israel, among others. We share our findings at international platforms, including the UN, and have presented our evidence on the harm caused by explosive violence to the UK Parliament, think tanks, and public discussions. Our research is frequently referenced in the media, and we are regular contributors to discussions on armed violence worldwide. For further details, please reach out to Iain Overton at [email protected].

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The war without front lines: how IEDs are the greatest existential threats to some States in West Africa today

5 days ago | aoav.org.uk | Iain Overton

There is a quiet war spreading across West Africa. It has no fixed front lines, no tanks crushing border posts, no globally televised declarations. But it is as deadly and destabilising as any conventional conflict. And at the heart of this war is what some are calling the 21st century’s “weapon of mass destruction”: the improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
Q&A: "No Good Choices"... understanding the Fulani – a conversation with Alan Bobbett - AOAV

6 days ago | aoav.org.uk | Iain Overton

Here, Iain Overton – the Executive Director of Action on Armed Violence – speaks with Alan Bobbett, Executive Director of Resilience for Peace, an organisation working at the intersection of community security and human rights in West Africa.
Independent MP warns Starmer: Britain risks Hague trial over arms exports to Israel

6 days ago | aoav.org.uk | Iain Overton

Independent MP Shockat Adam has warned that Sir Keir Starmer could become the Prime Minister “to see Britain answer at The Hague” for its role in arming Israel amid accusations of war crimes in Gaza. Speaking during Prime Minister’s Questions, the Member of Parliament for Leicester South urged the UK government to “acknowledge that ethnic cleansing is under way” and to immediately end all military cooperation with Israel.
AOAV briefing note: India–Pakistan escalation (8 May 2025) - AOAV

1 week ago | aoav.org.uk | Iain Overton

Tensions between India and Pakistan have escalated dramatically in recent days in the wake of a deadly militant attack in Pahalgam, Indian-administered Kashmir, on 22 April 2025, in which 26 Indian tourists were killed. India blames the Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Taiba, operating under the name The Resistance Front, for the assault. Pakistan has denied any involvement.
BBC accused of political censorship over delayed Gaza documentary

1 week ago | aoav.org.uk | Iain Overton

The BBC is facing mounting criticism from across the UK’s screen and medical industries after it has repeatedly delayed the broadcast of a documentary titled Gaza: Medics Under Fire, which details attacks on Palestinian health workers and hospitals during the ongoing conflict in Gaza. The film – produced by Basement Films, the company headed by former Channel 4 News editor Ben de Pear – was scheduled to air in early 2025 and has been described as a “powerful piece of reporting” by the BBC itself.
UK reportedly has sent Israel thousands of military items despite export bans

1 week ago | aoav.org.uk | Iain Overton

British companies exported thousands of military items to Israel after the Labour government’s suspension of key arms export licences in September 2024, according to new findings reported by The Guardian. The analysis, based on Israeli import data, raises serious questions about the government’s enforcement of its own export restrictions and the true nature of ongoing UK arms transfers to Israel.
Flag-waving and finger-pointing: the dangerous myth-making hidden in some VE Day commentaries

1 week ago | aoav.org.uk | Iain Overton

As Britain commemorates VE Day, reactionary commentary has emerged – but not to honour the past, rather to weaponise it. In The Spectator and The Telegraph, recent columns by Gavin Mortimer and David Blair have turned remembrance into grievance, and set about casting diversity and diplomacy as threats to military strength. But their arguments rely on selective nostalgia and historical amnesia, constructing a dangerous mythology of British might that distorts both past and present.
Shot in the head: American doctors bear witness to the atrocities committed by the IDF against Gaza's children

1 week ago | aoav.org.uk | Iain Overton

An 18-month-old girl named Liliana was brought into the emergency room at a hospital in Gaza with a bullet wound to her temple. According to American anaesthesiologist Dr Ahlia Kattan, who held her as staff attempted chest compressions, “I knew she was dead, but her mum was screaming… she had tried for nine years to have her.” A CT scan confirmed the worst: this was not shrapnel or incidental trauma. The child had been shot—directly, precisely—in the head.
Guns rarely die. They just change hands.

1 week ago | aoav.org.uk | Iain Overton

There’s a bitter truth in warzones that should be read out to the men in suits who approve arms deals and the generals who sign off on weapon transfers. Once a gun is made, it doesn’t disappear. It lingers. It doesn’t fall apart on its own will. It just finds new hands. In the badland-borderlands of the central Sahel, Salafi jihadist groups are waging war with weapons of the past. No ideology-driven arsenals flown in from foreign patrons. No 21st-century weaponry bought in dark web bazaars.
Saving lives in the golden hour: a new model for risk education and first aid in areas with high risk of explosive weapon harm

1 week ago | aoav.org.uk | Iain Overton

The side event ‘ Strengthening Local Capacity to Respond to Explosive Inuries’ was recorded during the 28th Meeting of National Mine Action Directors and United Nations Advisers (NDM-UN28) held from 9–11 April 2025. It presented a new and urgent model of intervention: combining explosive ordnance risk education (EORE) with community-based first aid responder (CFAR) training.