In 2017, approximately 90,000 people died as the direct result of armed conflict. This figure is down for the third year in a row, and is now 31 percent lower than in 2014.
Nearly a third of all conflicts – and four of the 10 most serious wars worldwide – now involve a local division of Islamic State (IS).
The very latest data from theUppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) show that in 2017, there were 10 ongoing conflicts in the world that had each taken at least 1,000 human lives. These 10 wars were taking place in eight countries: Afghanistan, DR Congo, the Philippines, Iraq, Yemen, Nigeria, Somalia and Syria. In addition, there were 39 ongoing smaller armed conflicts, each of which had killed 25–1,000 people.
In Syria alone, there were as many battle-related deaths in 2017 as in all conflicts worldwide just 10 years ago. The most violent year since the start of the new millennium was 2014, when there were over 132,000 battle-related deaths, of which nearly half were in Syria.
- Read more at the PRIO blog
- Read the Norwegian op-ed in Dagsavisen here
- Read the recent article in Journal of Peace Research by following this link.
