Over the past year, the world has witnessed an series of armed conflicts indicative of a bleak era where war appears to be never-ending
2024-25 have been bleak years for the world, which has seen ever-growing wars across the globe. From Ukraine, to Sudan, to Gaza, and now Iran-Israel, war seems to be the defining narrative of this time in human history.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will enter its third year in 2025, with both Eastern European countries refusing to relent. Ukrainian forces had reclaimed some territory towards the end of 2023, but Russian troops launched fresh offensives in 2024. The unending artillery attacks, drone strikes have left once proud cities such as Bakhmut and Kherson in rubble and ruin, and their millions of residents displaced.
In the middle east, the Gaza Strip has been the scene of what the UN has called a genocide—with over 2 million people stuck in the area with no hope for any food or water as Israel blocks off aid. Since the Hamas attack on an Israel kibbutz on October 7, 2023, Israel’s military operations against the Palestinian group has resulted in 10s of 1000s of casualties and the near total destruction of the entire Gaza strip. There was a brief cease fire in January 2025 but it collapsed within a few months and triggered a fresh wave of air strikes and rocket exchanges.
For Africa, Sudan has been a flashpoint, with the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces engaged into deadly civil war since April 2023. Throughout 2024, four million people were displaced because of urban combat in Khartoum, Nyala and Al Fashir and critical infrastructure was destroyed.
Yemen’s Iran aligned Houthi rebels, who claim solidarity with Palestine, has kept up a maritime campaign against any commercial shipping liners in the Red Sea since November 2023. Their missile and drone strikes prompted shipping liners to have NATO naval escorts, and, in March 2025, led to Operation Prosperity Guardian which had deterred fresh attacks till recently.
In July 2024, Houthi drones hit an residential block in Tel Aviv, killing one and injuring ten. This was the first Houthi strike to breach Israel’s defences. In retaliation, Israel conducted air raids on Yemen’s ports.
Israel has been at the centre of several conflicts in the middle-east, most recently the country conducted strikes in Iran on June 13, 2025. Israeli missiles hit Iran’s Natanz nuclear site, and killed several senior commanders. Iran’s wasted no time and rained down over a 100 ballistic missiles on Jerusalem and Tel Aviv the next day.
While each country has given its justifications for conducting warfare, the common theme appears to be the mounting civilian casualties, along with the ever-growing fear that a single wrong move to trigger a global catastrophe.
