Gaza

According to the UN, the number of civilians killed in Gaza since the Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023, stood at a figure of 52,535, as of May 4, 2025. Women and children account for 70% of these deaths. Israel has suffered over 1,200 fatalities, while the number of dead in the Occupied West Bank is over 500. Thousands more on both sides have been injured.

Wider Middle East War

The Israel-Hamas war is taking place against the threat of wider regional confrontation. On April 13, 2024, Iran launched an unprecedented aerial attack on Israel using drones, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles. Meanwhile, the Houthis in Yemen have pledged to continue targeting shipping in the Red Sea until Israel withdraws its military from Gaza.

Tensions remain high in the region, with Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, various militias in Iraq and Syria, plus Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad variously involved in a string of attacks that have heightened fears that the war in Gaza could spill over into neighboring countries.

Sudan

A popular uprising inside the military in 2019 that saw the ousting of Sudan's former head of state, Omar al-Bashir, effectively triggered the current war in Sudan. The power struggle that ensued between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and a powerful paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) erupted into violent clashes on April 15, 2023.

Ukraine

The Russo-Ukrainian war has entered its fourth year. In its latest report, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) stated that there have been 42,046 civilian casualties since February 24, 2022. This comprised 12,654 killed and 29,392 injured, although exact figures are difficult to quantify.

Myanmar

In 2024, the military faced a national uprising that spanned the breadth of the country. Dealing with increasing opposition from a coalition of armed ethnic groups and resistance forces, the regime found itself operating on the back foot. The conflict, however, remains brutal. According to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), the warfare in Myanmar currently ranks as the most intense violent conflict among the 50 countries it monitors.

Ethiopia

Deep-seated mistrust of one another, plus both sides mobilizing forces and amassing weaponry, is increasing the likelihood of accidental clashes in 2024 triggering another confrontation and all the violence and misery that would entail.

Sahel

Violent extremism is set to blight the region throughout 2025. The political, security, and economic situation in Sahel is further deteriorating as the conflict, which is essentially about the implementation of Jihadist governance in rural areas, is fueling a severe humanitarian and protection crisis.

Haiti

Moïse's death at the hands of foreign mercenaries created a power vacuum that the country's gang leaders have taken advantage of: criminals control much of the capital, Port-au-Prince. The fighting has left hundreds dead, and driven tens of thousands from their homes. Kenyan security forces have attempted to quell the mayhem, with 600 troops already present in the Caribbean nation.

Armenia-Azerbaijan

The decades-long conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh has seen two wars fought over the contested enclave. Azerbaijan's lightning attack on Nagorno-Karabakh in September ended three decades of de facto independence for the breakaway region, which the world already recognized as Azerbaijani. Hope is still alive that the two countries will eventually sign a peace deal. But this historic conflict shows no signs of thawing fast.

US-China

A major flashpoint is Taiwan. On April 1, 2025, China launched two days of large-scale military drills across the central and southern Taiwan Strait and the East China Sea. The exercises were intended as a "severe warning and forceful containment against Taiwan independence."

Middle East and North Africa

Turkey's armed conflict on its territory against the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) has been ongoing since 1978. In July 2015, a two-and-a-half-year-long ceasefire broke down, which took the conflict into a new and deadly phase. Since then, 7,152 people have been killed, according to statistics compiled by the International Crisis Group.

Iraq, no stranger to international and non-international conflict, has been engaged in armed conflict against the Islamic State group on its own territory since January 2014.

Meanwhile, the conflict between Turkey and Cyprus shows no sign of being resolved 50 years after Turkey invaded the Mediterranean island in 1974. Presently, Turkey occupies the northern part of the island. The photograph shows the Kyrenia mountain range painted with the flag of the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and the Turkish flag.

Since the fall of the Qaddafi regime in 2011, Libya has been in a state of constant political turmoil and related armed violence. The internationally recognized Government of Libya, Libya National Army (LNA), various armed groups, and intervening foreign powers, all share responsibility in the destabilization of the country.

In 1957, Morocco claimed sovereignty over the Western Sahara. In 1973, the Polisario Front also claimed the region after the withdrawal of Spain from what was then known as Spanish Sahara. In 1975, Morocco invaded the territory. The conflict today is characterized as a largely unarmed civil campaign of the Polisario Front and their self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) state to gain fully recognized independence for Western Sahara.

Asia

According to the Geneva Academy, Asia is the theater of 19 current NIACs, in Afghanistan, India, Myanmar, Pakistan, and the Philippines. But it's the two long-running international armed conflicts between India and Pakistan and between India and China that often make headline news.