Oslo study: 2024 marks highest number of global conflicts since 1946

AFP | Oslo

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The world saw the highest number of armed conflicts in almost 80 years in 2024, dethroning 2023 as a record year, a Norwegian study published yesterday showed, highlighting the risks linked to a US disengagement.

Last year, 61 conflicts were registered in the world across 36 countries, with some countries experiencing several simultaneous conflicts, the report by the Peace Research Institute of Oslo (Prio) said.

In 2023, there were 59 conflicts in 34 countries.

Structural shift

“This is not just a spike - it’s a structural shift,” said Siri Aas Rustad, the main author of the report which covers trends in armed conflicts in the period 1946-2024.

“The world today is far more violent, and far more fragmented, than it was a decade ago,” she said. Africa remained the most ravaged continent, with 28 conflicts involving at least one state, followed by Asia with 17, the Middle East with 10, Europe with three and the Americas with two.

More than half of these countries experienced two or more conflicts.

Deaths

The number of deaths resulting from fighting remained around the same level as in 2023, at about 129,000, making 2024 the fourth-deadliest year since the end of the Cold War in 1989, the study said.

The death toll was led by the wars in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip, as well as clashes in the Tigray region of Ethiopia.

“Now is not the time for the United States - or any global power – to retreat from international engagement,” Rustad said.

Profound mistake

“Isolationism in the face of rising global violence would be a profound mistake with longterm human life consequences,” she said, a reference to US President Donald Trump’s “America First” campaign.