Copenhagen, Jun. 7, (dpa/GNA) – The number of people killed in wars and conflicts almost doubled last year, reaching the highest policewoman number since the Rwandan genocide in 1994, a Swedish research group reported on Wednesday.
At least 237,000 people were killed in military conflicts in 2022, researchers from the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) at the University of Uppsala in Sweden announced. This is a 97% increase compared to 2021. The number of active conflicts around the world remains at a historically high level.
The researchers plan to publish their findings in the July issue of the Journal of Peace Research.
While there has been a significant de-escalation in Yemen and Afghanistan, the situation in Ethiopia and Ukraine in particular escalated dramatically, explained analyst Shawn Davies.
These two wars alone led to at least 180,000 combat-related deaths, which are low estimates that would likely be revised significantly upwards as more information becomes available.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine some 15 months ago. The civil war in Ethiopia between the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and the government has been raging since late 2020 and ended in November 2022, with a ceasefire and negotiations for a peace agreement.
Though most believe that Russia’s war in Ukraine was the bloodiest conflict of 2022, in fact, more people were killed in Ethiopia, Davies said.
Based on the UCDP data, the Oslo-based Peace Research Institute also said on Wednesday that more than 100,000 people were killed in Ethiopia in 2022 and more than 81,000 in Ukraine.
GNA