“I’ve covered about 40 wars but I’ve never seen anything like 2025.” In an editorial published on December 29, John Simpson, one of the best-known war correspondents and now head of Global Affairs at the BBC, tried to summarize what according to various reports appeared to be a black year for peace. Over fifty conflicts, of varying intensity, have been recorded in the four corners of the globe. From Ukraine to the Gaza Strip, from Sudan to South-East Asia to the Caribbean, this year it was the weapons that spoke first and foremost. And 2026 may not be any better. There are fronts that are already hot or at risk of detonation, such as Venezuela or the Taiwan Strait. The world may not stop being a powder keg.
Over 240 thousand victims
To get an overview, although not exhaustive, of what has happened in the last 365 days, it is necessary to first look at the ACLED (Armed Conflict Location & Event Data) Index, which transforms the theaters of war on Earth into figures. From 1 December 2024 to 28 November 2025, 204,605 conflict events were recorded. The victims – underestimated – were over 240 thousand. One in 4 people in the world has in some way been touched by conflict. Last June the number of conflicts reached 56, the highest number since the Second World War. “Conflict has increased around the world in recent years, increasing instability and highlighting weaknesses in the international system. This trend has continued into 2025, with long-running, intractable wars underway in many parts of the world,” Foreign Policy writes in a lengthy article.
Three main wars
There are local, national, regional conflicts. But in 2025 there were first and foremost three wars that colored the year black: the one in Ukraine, the one in Gaza, the one in Sudan. The war that involved the Strip and also the West Bank, according to the Acled Index, was the worst in terms of mortality, diffusion and risk percentage. “From a theoretical point of view, every Palestinian is exposed to violent events”, explains the report, considering Palestine as the site of the “most dangerous conflict in the world”.
Palestine, Ukraine, Mexico, the most dangerous countries on Earth
Together with Palestine, Ukraine and Mexico are considered by the same report to be the most dangerous countries on the planet in terms of violent events. In Ukraine, according to UN estimates from last November, over 12 thousand civilian victims were recorded in 2025, with an increase of 27% compared to 2024. An even greater increase, according to the BBC, concerned Russian military losses: 350 thousand soldiers were killed by the invasion, with a dramatic increase (+ 40%) in the year that is about to end.
Sudan, the hidden conflict
The third major conflict is the least exposed in the media, the civil war in Sudan. Between April 2023 and December 2025 there were 150 thousand deaths, estimated by default. The number of internally displaced people has reached 12 million people, and the number of refugees in neighboring countries has exceeded 4 million people.
The other theaters of war
Less dire figures, but no less dramatic, concerned the other theaters of war in 2025: Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iran (hit by Israeli and, in the last three cases, also US attacks), the border between India and Pakistan and that between Thailand and Cambodia, the civil conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Burma, according to the Acled Index Report, is the scene of the most fragmented conflict: there are over 1200 armed groups operating in the country. The report broadens its scope of analysis to countries marked by political violence. Two above all, Haiti and Ecuador. In recent months, Nigeria has seen an escalation in ISIS attacks, culminating in US raids on jihadist positions in the north of the country.
The scenarios of the future
And then there are the conflicts of the future, those that could make 2026 even darker. Donald Trump, although he claims to have ended eight wars, has opened a new front in Latin America, with anti-drug raids in the Caribbean Sea and a medium-term goal of toppling the Venezuelan regime of Nicolas Maduro. The Latin American front could increase the scope of world conflicts. Not only Venezuela is at risk, but also Colombia and Ecuador.