The Deadliest Wars of 2025: A Map 0 16

Newsweek reports that the project examines events from December 1, 2024, to November 28, 2025. According to the organization, these events resulted in over 240,000 deaths worldwide.

ACLED identifies the following regions as having 'extreme' levels of violence: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Myanmar, Syria, Mexico, Nigeria, Ecuador, Brazil, Haiti, Sudan, and Pakistan.

In 2025, states in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia intensified violence against neighbors, internal groups, and protesters. The number of airstrikes and drone attacks reached record levels, and rising defense budgets allowed countries to expand the scale of military operations.

A new model of modern conflicts is observed, characterized by urban attacks, bombings, and offensive military actions.

According to ACLED estimates, about 6% of the world's population was affected by armed conflicts in 2025.

The top ten deadliest conflicts of 2025 included:

Ukraine, Sudan, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Myanmar, Nigeria, Somalia, Syria, Mexico, Brazil, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The leaders in terms of danger were:

Mexico, Ukraine, Brazil, Syria, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The Ukrainian war and the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians together accounted for over 40% of all global conflict events, although their total number slightly decreased compared to the previous year.

The Israeli-Palestinian confrontation remains the most 'geographically dispersed' - violence was recorded in nearly 70% of the territory of Gaza and the West Bank.

Regional Details

Ukraine became the deadliest conflict in the world in 2025 - nearly 78,000 dead. Russian strikes on civilian infrastructure resulted in the deaths of over 2,000 civilians.

Myanmar experienced over 13,700 deaths during the civil war; Sudan also remains the epicenter of fierce clashes.

In Latin America, high levels of violence are attributed to the activities of criminal groups. Brazil, Ecuador, Haiti, and Mexico made it to the list of the ten most dangerous countries.

Sudan became the deadliest conflict in Africa for civilians - over 17,000 killed from January to November.

According to ACLED, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) caused more harm to the civilian population than any other group.

In Syria, the number of victims increased from 6,000 to over 9,000 in a year, attributed to political divisions, sectarian violence, and the intervention of external actors.

Ecuador rose to sixth place on the list due to widespread gang violence: over 50 armed groups, including about 40 gangs, carried out more than 2,500 attacks, half of which targeted civilians.

What Experts Say

ACLED head Cliona Reilly stated: "Since 2019, the level of conflicts has doubled, and this year it remains just as high. We have reached a sort of new normal - an extremely high level of violence worldwide."

ACLED analytics head Andrea Carboni noted: "Civilians are facing not only a greater amount of violence - they are facing greater state violence."