Non-international armed conflict

A non-international armed conflict (NIAC) or "armed conflict not of an international character" involves one or more non-state actors, and at most one primary actor that is a state. The non-state actors can be sub-state actors, such as a region within a state. There can also be additional states, often called co-belligerents or co-parties, in limited or supporting roles. An armed conflict, in turn, is an armed confrontation of sufficiently high intensity, duration, and organization to count as such. While civil wars, often referred to as internal armed conflicts, are classified as NIACs, many non-international armed conflicts are not civil wars in a strict sense of the term (for example, when the territories of more than one state are involved in fighting).