UPSC Prelims 2023 Q93: Conflict Regions in News — Explained
Consider the following pairs:
(Regions often mentioned in news : Reason for being in news)
1. North Kivu and Ituri : War between Armenia and Azerbaijan
2. Nagorno-Karabakh : Insurgency in Mozambique
3. Kherson and Zaporizhzhia : Dispute between Israel and Lebanon
How many of the above pairs are correctly matched?
- Only one
- Only two
- All three
- None
Answer: (d) None
Statement-wise explanation
- 1: incorrect — North Kivu and Ituri are provinces in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), not in the Caucasus. In 2022–23 they were in the news because the M23 rebel group had resurged in North Kivu and armed groups such as the ADF and CODECO were attacking civilians in Ituri. The UN Security Council has repeatedly discussed this violence. The Armenia–Azerbaijan war was fought over Nagorno-Karabakh, not over these provinces.
- 2: incorrect — Nagorno-Karabakh is an ethnic-Armenian enclave inside Azerbaijan, in the South Caucasus, and it is the subject of the Armenia–Azerbaijan conflict. A 44-day war ended in a ceasefire on 10 November 2020, and Azerbaijan blockaded the Lachin corridor from December 2022. The insurgency in Mozambique is in Cabo Delgado province in the country's far north, which has nothing to do with Nagorno-Karabakh.
- 3: incorrect — Kherson and Zaporizhzhia are regions of southern Ukraine. Russia claimed to annex them, along with Donetsk and Luhansk, after so-called referendums held on 23–27 September 2022. On 12 October 2022 the UN General Assembly condemned the annexation by 143 votes to 5, and India abstained. The Israel–Lebanon dispute is about their land and sea border, and the two countries signed a US-mediated maritime boundary agreement on 27 October 2022.
How to eliminate
This is a map-literacy question. You do not need fine detail, only a rough idea of where each place is. Kherson and Zaporizhzhia sound Slavic, and they were in the headlines throughout the Russia–Ukraine war, so pair 3 cannot be about Israel and Lebanon. Nagorno-Karabakh is the best-known Armenia–Azerbaijan flashpoint, so pair 2 is wrong. That alone tells you the region in pair 2 has been swapped with the one in pair 1. Once you see that the regions and reasons are swapped around, all three pairs fall apart and none is correctly matched. The 'How many pairs' format leaves no room for partial credit, so you must test every pair. Watch for this trick: UPSC often takes three correct region–event pairs and shuffles them. If you can place even two of the three regions on a map, you can solve it. Remember: North Kivu and Ituri are in eastern DRC (M23, ADF), Nagorno-Karabakh is Armenia vs Azerbaijan, and Kherson and Zaporizhzhia are Russia vs Ukraine.
Know more
Conflict regions in the news, 2022–23
UPSC regularly tests whether you can link a place name to the right country and conflict. The 2023 question used three regions, and the explanations above add a fourth conflict (Mozambique) and a fifth (Israel–Lebanon):
| Region | Country | Conflict / reason in news |
|---|---|---|
| North Kivu, Ituri | DR Congo (east) | M23 rebellion; ADF and CODECO militias; UN mission MONUSCO |
| Nagorno-Karabakh | Azerbaijan (Armenian-majority enclave) | Armenia–Azerbaijan war 2020; Lachin corridor blockade Dec 2022; Azerbaijani offensive Sept 2023 |
| Kherson, Zaporizhzhia | Ukraine (south) | Russia's claimed annexation, Sept 2022; Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant |
| Cabo Delgado | Mozambique (north) | ISIS-linked insurgency since 2017; near gas projects |
| Shebaa Farms, Blue Line, offshore Karish/Qana fields | Israel–Lebanon | Maritime boundary deal, 27 Oct 2022 |
Key points
- Eastern DRC borders Rwanda and Uganda. The UN Security Council has urged Rwanda to stop supporting M23. Bunia, the capital of Ituri, is also the centre of the Ebola outbreaks there.
- Nagorno-Karabakh is inside Azerbaijan but had an ethnic-Armenian majority. After the September 2023 offensive, more than 100,000 of its roughly 120,000 Armenians fled, and Azerbaijan took control of the whole region.
- Ukraine annexation vote: UNGA resolution ES-11/4 (12 Oct 2022) passed 143–5, with 35 abstentions, India and China among them.
- Israel–Lebanon deal: Lebanon and Israel did not sign a joint treaty. Each sent a separate letter to the United States, with US envoy Amos Hochstein as mediator.
How to prepare: keep a running table of the regions you meet in the news, with country, neighbours and the conflict. Mark them on a blank map once a month.
In the news
All of these conflicts were in the headlines in 2022–23. Russia claimed to annex Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in September 2022. Azerbaijan blockaded the Lachin corridor from December 2022. The M23 rebels resurged in North Kivu, and Israel and Lebanon signed their maritime boundary deal in October 2022.