The number of global conflicts hit a new peak in 2025, with 65 state-involved conflicts recorded, a new report by the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) found.
Israel has been labeled as “one of the most aggressive countries in the world” due to its simultaneous involvement across multiple fronts, including Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, and the Houthis.
Post-WWII Peak
According to PRIO’s “Conflict Trends” report, 65 state-based conflicts were recorded across 35 countries in 2025, marking the highest number since World War II.
This gap between the number of wars and conflict countries is due to warzones fracturing into multiple, overlapping fronts, where a single country hosts multiple, concurrent fights involving different actors.
Out of 35 conflict nations, only 16 face a single war. The rest are multi-conflict hubs—led by Myanmar with five civil wars, and Israel managing five combined domestic and international conflicts.
Africa emerged as the most impacted by state-based conflict (29), followed by Asia (19), the Middle East (13), the Americas (2) and Europe (1).
Shocking Numbers
The report also found that 2025 marked the third most violent year in the post–Cold War era, with 245,000 people killed in battle-related violence – a sharp increase from 188,000 in 2024.
This was driven by the Russia-Ukraine war, the Israeli war in Gaza and the conflict in Sudan, including the siege and massacre of El-Fasher City.
“Conflicts today are increasingly interconnected. They involve more actors, overlapping fronts and greater regional spillover. That makes them far harder to resolve and significantly increases the risks of wider regional wars,” Research Director at PRIO Siri Aas Rustad said.
Speaking to media outlets, Rustad said 2025’s numbers are “shocking,” with no positive signs. “We are putting a lid on collaboration. The (UN) Security Council doesn’t work at the moment. We get a much more polarized world,” she noted.
Interstate Conflicts
The report documented eight interstate conflicts in 2025 – twice the number recorded in 2024 and the highest since 1946. These conflicts include the Russia-Ukraine war, renewed violence between India and Pakistan, escalating tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan, and clashes between Thailand and Cambodia.
They also included the regional escalation in the Middle East involving Israel, Iran, Yemen and the US. This trend has continued into 2026 with the US-Israeli war with Iran.
“The return of interstate conflict at this scale is deeply worrying. For decades, civil wars dominated global conflict. Now we are witnessing a dangerous resurgence of direct confrontations between states, driven by geopolitical rivalry, border disputes and regional escalation, particularly in the Middle East,” Rustad warned.
Israel: The Most Aggressive
According to Rustad, Israel was “clearly one of the most aggressive countries in the world at the moment,” due to engaging on multiple fronts, including in Gaza, Syria, Lebanon, against Iran, and against Houthi militias.
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed nearly 73,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, and injured over 173,000 others, according to figures from Gaza’s Health Ministry. The Israeli bombardment of the Strip continues despite a US-mediated ceasefire agreed to in October 2025.
Moreover, Israel, alongside the US, launched a joint attack on Iran in late February 2026, sparking a regional conflict that has dragged Lebanon and spread turmoil across the region.
Sudan’s El-Fasher Massacre
The report highlighted a sharp rise in one-sided violence against civilians, involving 55 actors and more than 76,000 people killed in 2025 – the highest number recorded since the Rwandan Genocide in 1994. Most of the killings occurred in Sudan during El-Fasher‘s massacre.
El-Fasher is the capital city of the North Darfur state and had been under a brutal 18-month siege by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) before it fell into their hands following fierce clashes with the Sudanese army (SAF) in October 2025.
The RSF’s capture of the city unleashed a wave of atrocities, including summary executions, sexual violence and mass detention, which the UN said amounted to “war crimes and possible crimes against humanity.”
Non-State Violence
The report pointed to 75 non-state conflicts in 2025, slightly declining from 79 in the previous year. These conflicts left around 14,500 dead in 2025, with a notable drop in lethal violence between Mexican drug cartels last year.
Africa topped the list with 34 conflicts, including 14 in Nigeria and several flare-ups in South Sudan and Ethiopia. The Americas ranked second with 32 conflicts, with Brazil, Colombia and Mexico making up the lion’s share.
