Top 15 Most War-Torn Countries

The World’s Most War-Torn Countries

Afghanistan

Beginning in 2001, US soldiers entered Afghanistan to first remove the Taliban, and then to progressively assure the Taliban’s destruction from Afghan land while reconstructing the country’s key institutions. The United States also sent counter-insurgency forces to Afghanistan to protect civilians from Taliban attacks and to allow the Afghan government to gradually rebuild its position. Despite all of the safeguards put in place, insurgent skirmishes and Taliban attacks continue across the country. In Afghanistan, civilians are being killed as a result of bombs, crossfires, assassinations, and improvised explosive devices.

Iraq

On several instances, the horrors of conflict have tainted Iraq’s long history. In the recent century, Iraq has fought various conflicts, including the Second Kurdish-Iraqi War (1974-1975), the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988), and the Gulf War (1990-1991). In 2003, US forces invaded Iraq to destabilise Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi regime, and the fight that ensued culminated in Saddam’s collapse and death. War and bloodshed appear to be haunting the country at the moment, as the Iraqi Civil War has overtaken most of the country. When the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, often known as ISIS) took control of large areas of northern Iraq in 2014, the Iraqi insurgency was escalated to the level of a civil war.ISIS fighters have terrorised much of the world with their heinous acts, which have not been restricted to Iraq. This has pushed governments such as the United States, Iran, Syria, and others to support the Iraqi government in combatting ISIS militants’ expansion and spread. According to a sobering research, between 2003 and 2011, over 500,000 Iraqis perished as a result of warfare, including those killed directly or indirectly.

Syria

The gravity of Syria’s civil war is increasingly gaining international attention. With the spread of the Arab Spring revolutions in Syria in early spring 2011, the war began. A revolutionary wave of demonstrations and rallies swept over Syria, calling for the abolition of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. The military of the government forcibly responded to the protests, which were widely denounced by the European Union and the United Nations. Citizen demonstrations rapidly escalated into an armed insurgency, which led to the current Syrian Civil War. More than 11 million Syrians have been displaced, and at least 250,000 have died as a result of the fighting. Despite peace measures, violence is still ongoing as of the end of 2017.

Countries Currently Experiencing War

Ukraine

Ukraine is divided between the Russian government’s influence in the east and the European Union’s influence in the west. Following Russia’s annexation of Crimea in March 2014 and a cease-fire breach in Ukraine in September of same year, Ukraine decided in June 2015 to prohibit Russian planes from entering the country and to restrict Russian gas purchases. In 2017, the conflict in Ukraine known as the War in Donbass continues. Marinka and Avdiivka in eastern Ukraine are among the most war-torn locations in the country.

Yemen

Yemen has been embroiled in a civil war since 2015. The conflict is being waged between two factions, each claiming to represent the genuine Yemeni government. These are the forces loyal to Ali Abdullah Saleh, located in Sana’a, and those loyal to Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, stationed in the port city of Aden. To make matters worse, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (or ISIS) and Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) have both carried out fatal strikes in Yemen.

Democratic Republic of the Congo

There are a number of ongoing wars in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), some of which have been continuing since the 1970s. These include the Lord’s Resistance Army Insurgency’s guerilla campaign, the Batwa-Luba clashes, the Kivu Conflict, and the Ituri Conflict, which has been classified as “low-level conflict” since 2003. The United States government presently advises against all travel to the Democratic Republic of the Congo due to the presence of armed groups.

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Mexico

Mexico may be an intriguing addition to this list. Despite the fact that the country is not currently involved in a formal war or civil war, the Mexican Drug War remains one of the deadliest wars of the modern era. The conflict has been officially underway since 2006, and it is believed that up to 120,000 people have died as a result of it. A further number of persons, believed to be over 27,000, have gone missing as a result of the war.

Central African Republic

The Central African Republic, a landlocked African country, has long been embroiled in a succession of military coups and rebellions that have destroyed the nation’s economy and caused extensive instability. The country is now engulfed in a civil war fought between government troops and the Séléka rebel group. The Séléka rebels, who were deemed guilty for the wanton devastation of a huge number of towns and villages in the country as well as the death of thousands of innocent civilians, grew rapidly throughout the conflict, which began on December 10th, 2012.