There are at least 55 ongoing wars around the world. Politicians have consistently failed to end the armed conflicts that are ravaging their societies, and the dangers have been multiplied by the fact that local wars no longer remain local.
The bloody conflict between Russia and Ukraine — the biggest war on the European continent since 1945 — has entered its third year and is still reverberating worldwide. The spillover effects have included increased famine in Africa, a migration crisis in Europe, the release of harmful substances into water, food and milk supplies that ultimately reach people on six continents. By the end of this year, the number of people killed and injured as a result of the war in Ukraine is expected to exceed 1 million — a casualty toll not seen in Europe since World War II.
In Gaza, where war has raged since last October, the United Nations puts the death toll as of January at 25,000 — but the number may well be much higher. And in Yemen, the U.N. says that 377,000 have died in the fighting or from disease over the past decade of civil war.