Listed conflicts have at least 100 cumulative deaths in total and at least 1 death in current or in the past calendar year.Only direct deaths resulting from violence are included for the current and past year excess deaths indirectly resulting from famine, disease, or disruption of services are included along with violent deaths in the cumulative fatalities count when available. Fatality figures include battle-related deaths (military and civilian) as well as civilians intentionally targeted by the parties to an armed conflict.This is not a list of countries by intentional homicide rate, and criminal gang violence is generally not included unless there is also significant military or paramilitary involvement.Interstate, intrastate and non-state armed conflicts are listed. Armed conflicts consist in the use of armed force between two or more organized armed groups, governmental or non-governmental.The guidelines of inclusion are the following: This list of ongoing armed conflicts identifies present-day conflicts and the death toll associated with each conflict. 5 Skirmishes and clashes (fewer than 100 deaths in current or past year).4 Minor conflicts (100–999 combat-related deaths in current or past year).3 Wars (1,000–9,999 combat-related deaths in current or past year).2 Major wars (10,000 or more combat-related deaths in current or past year).Promisingly, however, Africa has also experienced the highest number of peace agreements in this thirty-year period.

In 2019, Africa was the only region to see an increase in one-sided violence. While non-state conflicts declined from 2018 to 2019, they still remain high and are a persistent threat to security, especially in Africa and Latin America. However, there has been a relative decrease in peace agreements in the past few years. The past 10 years saw an increase in the number of humanitarian ceasefires, especially in the Middle East. The international community is working hard to resolve conflicts across the world. This was nonetheless a decrease from 2018. In 2019, more than 50,000 people were killed in conflict-related events, most of them in Afghanistan and Syria. Many of these conflicts are related to the Islamic State (IS), which is, despite the crackdown in Syria, far from being defeated: In 2019 it reached Burkina Faso and Somalia. 2019 saw a record high number of state-based conflicts, with a total of 54. In addition, it examines trends in conflict recurrence, ceasefires, and peace agreements in the same period.

This PRIO Paper examines global trends in conflicts between 19 using data from the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP).

Global conflicts 2019