2023 was the year with the most armed conflicts in the world since 1946, according to study

The year 2023 saw the most armed conflicts since 1946, although paradoxically the number of states affected by wars decreased, according to a Norwegian study published on Monday. 

Last year, 59 armed conflicts were recorded worldwide, 28 of them in Africa, the Peace Research Institute Oslo (Prio) said in a study. 

The number of countries affected by conflict has decreased from 39 in 2022 to 34. Similarly, the number of people killed in combat has halved to around 122,000, according to data collected by Uppsala University in Sweden from international organisations and NGOs. 

However, these figures are the third highest since 1989, due in particular to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement. 

"The level of global violence has not been this high since the Cold War," said Siri Aas Rustad, a Prio researcher and lead author of the study, which assesses war trends between 1946 and 2023. 

"The figures suggest that the conflict chessboard is much more complex, with a greater number of belligerents active within a single country," she added. 

According to the institute, the increase in the number of conflicts is partly due to the spread of Islamic State, a jihadist group, in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, and the growing involvement of non-state actors, such as the jihadists of Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam Wal-Muslimin, who describe themselves as the official branch of al-Qaida in Mali. 

"This development makes it difficult for other actors, such as humanitarian groups or NGOs, to work to improve the lives of others," Rustad said. 

If the number of combat deaths fell last year, the total for the past three years is the highest in three decades. 

After Africa, the regions of the world most affected by armed conflict were Asia, with 17, the Middle East, with 10, Europe, with three, and the Americas, with one conflict.