Although constructed for safety, many refugee settlements today encounter violence, becoming risky locations for refugees and hosts. This dissertation investigates why some of these refugee settlements experience violence and not others. Heidrun Bohnet argues that the geographical location and distribution of refugees are influential factors in determining refugee-related conflict. While previous research has highlighted that refugees can become involved in new conflict situations in the host country, little comparative analysis exists that investigates the link between refugees and conflict. By using new quantitative refugee data on Africa from 1999-2010, this dissertation shows that the geographical space occupied by refugees is closely related to the risk of conflict. The author contends that a disaggregated approach towards refugees needs to be taken to understand refugee-related conflict within refugee settlements and beyond them.