142 articles
Jose Maria Sison
Jose Maria Sison (Joma, Amado Guerrero), 1939–2022, Filipino revolutionary who founded the Communist Party of the Philippines in 1968 and the New People's Army in 1969, wrote Philippine Society and Revolution, was imprisoned under Marcos, and led NDFP peace talks from exile in Utrecht.
Joseph Kony
Joseph Kony (born 1961) is the Ugandan founder and leader of the Lord's Resistance Army, wanted by the ICC since 2005 for war crimes and crimes against humanity; charges were confirmed in absentia in November 2025 while he remains at large.
Jubaland crisis
The Jubaland crisis is an ongoing dispute between Somalia's federal government and the Jubaland regional state, begun in 2013 and centered on control of Kismayo and its port.
Kachak movement
The Kachak movement (Albanian: Lëvizja Kaçake) was an Albanian armed resistance against Serbian and Yugoslav rule in Kosovo and Metohija, active from World War I until 1927.
Kurdistan Workers' Party
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK, Partîya Karkêren Kurdistan), Kurdish militant-political organization founded by Abdullah Öcalan in 1978; fought Turkey from 1984, over 40,000 killed; designated terrorist by US, EU, UK, NATO; dissolved armed structure in May 2025.
Kurds in Turkey
Kurds in Turkey, an estimated 18-20 percent of the population, are Turkey's largest ethnic minority. PKK insurgency 1984-2025, assimilationist language policy, and the post-2025 peace process mark the community's history.
Liberated Zone (Sierra Leone)
Liberated Zone (Sierra Leone): the RUF's own name for territory it controlled during the 1991-2002 civil war, chiefly around the Gola Forest in Kailahun, where it imposed civil administration, martial rule, and self-reliant settlements before UN deployment ended rebel control in 2001-2002.
Lord's Resistance Army insurgency
The Lord's Resistance Army insurgency, also called the Kony rebellion, is Joseph Kony's 1987 rebellion against Uganda's government, marked by child abduction, Sudanese backing, displacement across DRC, CAR, and South Sudan, and ICC charges against Kony.
Luweero Triangle
The Luweero Triangle, also spelled Luwero Triangle, is an area of central Uganda north of Kampala where Yoweri Museveni's guerrillas fought the government from 1981 to 1986.
Makhnovshchyna
Makhnovshchyna (Махновщина), also called the Makhno movement or Free Territories, was an anarchist peasant movement in southern Ukraine, 1918 to 1921, led by Nestor Makhno. Its Black Army fought Germans, Whites, and Bolsheviks.
Malayan Emergency
Malayan Emergency (1948–1960), also called the Communist Insurgency in Malaya: guerrilla war between the Malayan Communist Party's MNLA and British Commonwealth forces, ending with MCP defeat after the Briggs Plan resettlement of about 500,000 Chinese squatters.
Maqbool Bhat (مقبول بھٹ)
Maqbool Bhat (مقبول بھٹ), 1938–1984, Kashmiri separatist, co-founder of the National Liberation Front and forerunner of the JKLF; hanged in Tihar Jail on 11 February 1984 after the Ravindra Mhatre kidnapping, buried in prison, later commemorated as Shaheed-e-Azam.
March 23 Movement
March 23 Movement (M23, Mouvement du 23 Mars), Rwandan-backed armed group in eastern DRC founded 2012 from CNDP defectors; seized Goma 2012 and 2025, Bukavu and Uvira 2025, under UN sanctions since 2012.
Mau Mau rebellion
Mau Mau rebellion, also called the Kenya Emergency or Kenya Land and Freedom Army uprising: Kikuyu-led guerrilla war against British colonial rule in Kenya, 1952-1960, marked by mass detention, executions, and leading to independence in 1963.
Maute group
Maute group (Dawlah Islamiya), Islamist militant group founded by brothers Omar and Abdullah Maute in Butig, Lanao del Sur, Philippines; pledged allegiance to ISIS in 2014 and led the 2017 Marawi siege, after which its leaders were killed and remnants persist as DI-MG.
Mohammed Yusuf (محمد يوسف) (Boko Haram)
Mohammed Yusuf (محمد يوسف), 1970–2009, Nigerian Salafi cleric and founder of Boko Haram (Jama'atu Ahl as-Sunnah li-Da'awati wal-Jihad) in Maiduguri in 2002; executed in police custody July 30, 2009, after the group's July 2009 uprising, succeeded by Abubakar Shekau.
Moro conflict
Moro conflict: armed and political struggle between the Philippine state and the Muslim Moro peoples of Mindanao and Sulu, fought by the MNLF and MILF, addressed by the 1976 Tripoli, 1996 Final Peace, and 2014 Bangsamoro agreements and the BARMM autonomy.
Moro National Liberation Front
Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), Moro armed movement founded 1972 by Nur Misuari; signed the 1976 Tripoli Agreement and 1996 Final Peace Agreement with the Philippine government under OIC mediation, distinct from the splinter MILF.
Mozambican War of Independence
The Mozambican War of Independence, fought by FRELIMO guerrillas against Portuguese rule from 1964 to 1974, ended after Portugal's 1974 Carnation Revolution, with independence proclaimed on 25 June 1975.
Mujahideen
Mujahideen (mujahidin, plural of Arabic mujahid): the Afghan guerrilla factions formed after the 27 April 1978 coup who fought the Soviet occupation 1979–1989 with US, Saudi, and Pakistani backing, took Kabul in 1992, then fought a civil war until the Taliban took Kabul in 1996.
Ñancahuazú Guerrilla
The Ñancahuazú Guerrilla was the 1966–1967 campaign in Bolivia by the National Liberation Army (ELN), built around Che Guevara and crushed with his execution in October 1967.
National Socialist Council of Nagaland
National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN): Naga nationalist insurgent group founded 1980 from NNC dissidents rejecting the Shillong Accord; split in 1988 into NSCN-IM (Isak, Muivah) and NSCN-K (Khaplang); NSCN-IM signed the 1997 ceasefire and the 2015 Framework Agreement with India.
Naxalite–Maoist insurgency
Naxalite–Maoist insurgency: India's long-running communist rebellion led since 2004 by the CPI (Maoist) and its People's Liberation Guerrilla Army, rooted in the 1967 Naxalbari uprising, active in the mineral-rich red corridor and targeted for elimination by March 2026.
Nepalese Civil War
The Nepalese Civil War was a long conflict between the Government of Nepal and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), lasting from 1996 to 2006.
New People's Army
New People's Army (NPA), armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, founded March 29, 1969 by Jose Maria Sison and Bernabe Buscayno; Maoist guerrilla insurgency, US/EU/Philippines terrorist designation, now largely dismantled.
Niger Delta Avengers
The Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) is a militant group that emerged in Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta region in early 2016 to attack oil and gas infrastructure.
Operation Black Thunder
Operation Black Thunder: two 1986 and 1988 NSG and Punjab Police operations, also called the Gill Plan, that cleared Sikh militants from Amritsar's Golden Temple by siege and snipers with minimal damage, unlike Operation Blue Star.
Operation Blue Star (ਆਪਰੇਸ਼ਨ ਬਲੂ ਸਟਾਰ)
Operation Blue Star (ਆਪਰੇਸ਼ਨ ਬਲੂ ਸਟਾਰ), the June 1984 Indian Army assault ordered by Indira Gandhi on the Golden Temple complex and over a hundred Punjab gurdwaras to remove Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale; official toll 575 dead.
Oscar López Rivera
Oscar López Rivera (born 1943, San Sebastián, Puerto Rico), FALN member convicted of seditious conspiracy in 1981, served almost 36 years in US prisons before Obama's January 2017 commutation; released May 17, 2017; diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2024.
Papua conflict
Papua conflict: the OPM/TPNPB insurgency against Indonesian rule in western New Guinea since the 1960s, rooted in the contested 1969 Act of Free Choice; escalated after 2018, with tens of thousands displaced and special autonomy disputes unresolved.