CURRENT WORLD CONFLICTS - WORLD STATISTICS AS AT THE END OF JULY 2014

CURRENT WORLD CONFLICTS

WORLD STATISTICS AS AT THE END OF JULY 2014

Stes de Necker

Syria is currently the world’s most lethal and overall “biggest” war, with an estimated 170,000 deaths in the past three years, of which fewer than half were battle-related deaths but those made up a majority of the world’s total battle deaths in 2013. (The subset of battle deaths is more reliably counted through time, but does not include some categories such as bodies mysteriously dumped in the street or deaths from disease.) 

In 2014, fighting spread into Iraq, where Sunni insurgents control considerable territory and where in 2014 the most radical militants declared an Islamic State in Syrian and Iraqi territory they control. 

The war is internationalized by its spread into Lebanon where bombings and clashes happen regularly, and by the presence in Syria of both Lebanese Hezbollah and Iranian revolutionary guards fighting for the government and on the other side Sunni Jihadists from many countries. 

TABLE OF CONFLICTS

CONFLICT	START OF CONFLICT	CONTINENT
1948	Israeli–Palestinian conflict	Asia
1978	War in Afghanistan	Asia
2004	War in North-West Pakistan	Asia
2011	Syrian Civil War	Asia
2011	Iraqi insurgency	Asia
1991	Somali Civil War	Africa
1999	Islamist insurgency in Nigeria	Africa
2011	Egyptian Crisis	Africa
2012	Central African Republic conflict	Africa
2013	South Sudanese Civil War	Africa
1980-->	Favela War	Brazil
	War against Islamist militants	Afghanistan
	War against rebel groups	Burma-Myanmar
1980-->	Civil War	Central African Republic
1998-->	Congo War	Congo (Zaire)
1970-->	War against rebel groups	Colombia
1996 -->	Uighur	China
	War against Islamist militants	Chechnya
	War against Islamist militants	Dagestan
2014-->	Popular uprising against Government	Egypt
2014	War in Donbass	Europe
2014 -->	War against Islamist militants	Iraq
1970--> 1967 -->	Kashmir Naxalite Uprising	India
2014 -->	Civil War	Libya
2012 -->	War against Tuareg and Islamist militants	Mali
2006 -->	War against narcotraffic groups	Mexico
1997 -->	War against Islamist militants	Nigeria
2007 --> 2001 -->	War against Islamist militants Jihad	Pakistan
	War against Islamist militants	Philippines
1992 -->	North Caucasus Insurgency	Russia
1991-->	War against Islamist militants	Somalia
1983-->	War against rebel groups	Sudan
2009-->	Civil war	South Sudan
2011	Civil war	Syria
2014	Coup d’etat by army May 2014	Thailand
1984 -->	Kurdistan	Turkey
2014 -->	Secession of self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic and self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic	Ukraine
2006	Mexican Drug War	United States
1980 -->	Afghanistan	United States
2004 –2009->	War against and between Islamist militants	Yemen
	Total  43

Number of Militias -Guerrillas and Separatists groups involved 549

Some remarks about these conflicts

Syria – The world’s bloodiest war by far; also has generated millions of refugees. Atrocities on all sides but primarily the government. Spread to Iraq in 2014. Still no solution in sight.

Afghanistan – Fate of government uncertain as international community draws down forces and Taliban persists.

Iraq – Radical Islamists from the U.S. war in Iraq fought in Syria and in 2014 seized much land and resources with support of Sunni tribes who oppose Shi’ite government.

Pakistan – After collapse of peace talks, government battling Taliban elements in autonomous tribal areas adjacent to Afghanistan.

Nigeria – In the north, a violent Islamist group has instigated repeated violence such as bombings, and government attacks in response. Sad day when the Islamist terrorists blew up the UN building in 2011. Now they are killing women polio vaccine workers. The fighting occasionally spills over into neighboring Cameroon.

D.R. Congo – Beefed-up peacekeepers suppressed one armed group in the violent east of the country, and in 2104 were trying to coax another to disarm. Sporadic but really nasty fighting continues to erupt in certain eastern locations.

South Sudan – After a long north-south war, the south voted for independence, achieved in 2011. But South Sudan itself slipped into a bloody civil war (along ethnic lines) that reportedly has killed tens of thousands. A shaky cease-fire has been in effect since May 2014.

Israel/Gaza – Current fighting with Hamas in the Gaza Strip has exceeded a thousand killed.

Ukraine - Low-level fighting, ongoing in the east near Russia, has killed more than a thousand in 2014, in addition to the hundreds killed by the shoot-down of a civilian jet. Government is trying to dislodge pro-Russian armed separatists from territory they control Libya – New fighting in 2014 between armed militias that overthrew Gaddafi in 2011.

Central African Republic - Alarming levels of sectarian fighting (Muslim-Christian) with the potential for a genocide. Low-level with outbreaks of horrible violence. Cease-fire agreed July 30, 2014.

India – Little Maoist insurgencies of long standing; now in a cease-fire with one main group, may be winding down.

Mali – Islamists  were routed from north by French, but ethnic insurgency threatens to erupt again; cease-fire agreed in May 2014.

The Philippines – Sporadic residual fighting with Islamist militants on southern islands.

Russia – Low-level Islamist militants from the south, including Chechnya, stage incidents and bombings sporadically.

Somalia – African Union troops (mostly from nearby countries such as Uganda) restored government control of all major cities, leaving al Shabab militants in the countryside to carry out occasional bombings in the cities they no longer control (and in neighboring Kenya, which has troops in Somalia).

Sudan – The genocide in Darfur was mainly in 2004, but brutal incidents continue there; rebels remain active.

Yemen – The post-Saleh government with many competing factions has had some success against Islamic militants who had seized some towns in the south, but ethnic-based fighting has flared up in the north.