Jun. 22, 2025 |
Global conflict is on the rise. The number of state-based, armed conflicts recorded last year was the highest since 1946, topping the record set the previous year, according to a report released on Monday by the Peace Research Institute Oslo.
Across 36 countries, there were 61 state-based, armed conflicts—28 in Africa, the highest number on any continent.
Almost 130,000 people died in conflicts worldwide last year, the vast majority in the Ukraine war and Gaza. Largely because of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the past three years have recorded more conflict-related deaths than any other period in the last 30.
“The world today is far more violent, and far more fragmented, than it was a decade ago,” says Siri Aas Rustad, the author of the study.
Why so much fighting?